Suns make drastic change in desperate attempt to try and save their season

Armed with a big three of Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, and Bradley Beal, the expectations for the Phoenix Suns were quite clear ahead of the 2024-25 campaign. It's NBA Championship or bust in The Valley.

At the beginning of the season, the Suns looked like a team that could legitimately compete for an NBA title, winning seven of their first eight games. Unfortunately, an untimely Kevin Durant injury halted their early-season momentum, and they've been struggling ever since.

The Suns have gone just 8-17 since their hot start and have lost four in a row and ten of their last 13 overall. At 15-18, the Suns are the No. 12 seed in the Western Conference and are 1.5 games back of a spot in the Play-In Tournament. This team that was expecting to compete for an NBA championship is now just hoping to earn a spot in the tournament that dictates whether they can squeak into the playoffs as a No. 7 or No. 8 seed.

With their season on the verge of spiraling completely out of control, head coach Mike Budenholzer is set to make a massive change to the team's starting lineup ahead of Monday's game against the Philadelphia 76ers.

According to NBA insider Chris Haynes, the Suns are removing both Bradley Beal and Jusuf Nurkic from the team's starting lineup and are replacing them with Ryan Dunn and Mason Plumlee respectively.

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Suns attempt to save their season by making massive lineup change

This is obviously huge news. The Suns are removing Beal, a member of their star trio, from their starting lineup, and inserting a rookie in his place. Beal is a three-time All-Star, has averaged over 21 points per game in his career, has not come off the bench in a game since the 2015-16 season, and is the fifth-highest-paid player in the game based on AAV. If that isn't the ultimate spark-producing move, I don't know what is.

Beal's offensive numbers are far from bad, as he's averaged 17.8 points per game on 48.0/39.2/76.0 splits to go along with 3.7 rebounds and 3.1 assists. This change is one likely made with defense in mind. Beal has a reputation for being a poor defender, while Dunn was arguably the best defender in his rookie class and on Phoenix's roster. The Suns have struggled on that end of the floor, allowing 114.4 points per game (20th in the NBA) with a 115.4 defensive rating (23rd in the NBA).

The other adjustment made was also likely done with defense in mind, as Plumlee should add more rim protection than Nurkic, who is having arguably his worst season. Plumlee isn't a startable NBA center at this point, but Nurkic hasn't been playing like one either. Unfortunately, this Suns roster lacks appropriate depth.

At this point, the Suns have nothing to lose. Sticking with the status quo, when things have gone as poorly as they have, was not the right decision to make. If this change sparks some wins, then the Suns might've found something. If not, blowing it up might be their only other option.

The Suns can't do more than bench one of the highest-paid players in the league. If that doesn't fix things, there's a good chance nothing will.