Suns head coach Mike Budenholzer explained before Thursday's game the significance of trading for Nick Richards.

Suns head coach Mike Budenholzer explains his reasoning behind starting Mason Plumlee over a benched Jusuf Nurkic

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Phoenix currently sits toward the bottom of the West playoff picture dispute having three star players on the roster. Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, and Bradley Beal all give this team incredible star power but the large contracts have left the rest of the roster fairly bare.

If the world went the Suns' way, their dream scenario would be trading away Jusuf Nurkic and Bradley Beal and landing Jimmy Butler.

Many have gone even further when critiquing this season - with some essentially calling it an objective failure to this point. Dan Favale of Bleacher Report gave every single team a letter grade at the official halfway point of the season - and the Suns were given an undeniably poor mark.

The Suns (22-21) ended a five-game road trip with a 108-84 win Wednesday over a depleted Brooklyn Nets team. Booker scored 32 points and Durant added 24 in the win. The Suns will begin a three-game homestand Saturday night against the Washington Wizards at Footprint Center looking to build off winning three of their last four games.

Phoenix is already in the dealing mood, adding three future first-round picks in a trade with the Utah Jazz on Tuesday. The widely held belief is that the Suns are trying to gather enough assets in a move for Butler, which would probably involve the recently benched and currently injured Beal.

Devin Booker scored a game-high 32 points and Kevin Durant registered 24 points in his second game at Brooklyn against his former team to lead Phoenix (22-21) back above .500.

The Suns look like they will be a play-in team when the regular season ends. But one more trade could be on the horizon.

Even though the Suns are still barely hanging on to a spot in the play-in tournament, there's no denying they have been playing better basketball of late.