Trae Young's dagger on Monday might be the last straw for the Suns cursed season

The last time the Phoenix Suns were under .500 at 39-game mark was the 2019-20 campaign, where they were 16-23 at this point in the season. This was the plucky young team that went 8-0 in the bubble and started their path back to relevance after a decade in the wilderness.

In just the fifth season since then, the Suns sit at 19-20 after 39 games in 2025 with the highest payroll in NBA history. They fell below .500 for the second time this season after giving up 43 points to Trae Young as the Atlanta Hawks discarded the Suns 122-117 at State Farm Arena in Atlanta.

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Trae Young knocks the Suns below .500 with a long-ball dagger

The Suns entered the new year on a three-game losing streak, but were heading into a soft part of their schedule, playing just three of their first 12 games in 2025 against teams over .500 at the start of 2025.

So far, they've only managed to go 4-3 at just over the halfway point of this stretch and haven't looked good doing it. Even their wins against Philadelphia, Atlanta, Utah and Charlotte were struggles that required putrid opponent shooting, major opponent injuries and late-game comebacks.

On Monday night, they played a Hawks team missing Sixth Man of the Year contender De'Andre Hunter and first-time All-Star hopeful Jalen Johnson. They still fell rather meekly, trailing almost the entire game aside from a glimmer of false hope during the third quarter.

Trae Young took 31 shots in the absence of the team's other leading scorers en route to his season-high 43 points, including the deep dagger 3-pointer to put it away.

But it was the Hawks' backup center Onyeka Okongwu who changed the game. He scored 22 points and grabbed a career-high 21 rebounds in just 28 minutes. His 10 offensive rebounds were more than the Suns collected as an entire team in this game (six).

Devin Booker and Kevin Durant combined for 66 points while the Suns shot over 51 percent from the field but it wasn't enough to secure the road win. Thanks to the offensive rebounding, the Hawks got up 14 more shots than Phoenix and also managed to knock down 17 3-pointers for the game, including six from Trae Young.

The Suns can't keep living like this

The Suns have been making headlines in recent weeks for a myriad of reasons but none of those reasons have included playing good basketball. They've been dangling their money for Jimmy Butler for weeks and made some not-so-inconspicuous lineup changes as well. Neither the lineup changes nor the cupcake schedule have done much to stave off uninspiring performances.

Bradley Beal's performances off the bench have been relatively similar to when he was starting and he's doing his best to accept the change. Jusuf Nurkić, on the other hand, has found himself excised from the rotation altogether, causing a whole lot of trade speculation and drawing ire from the fan base.

Make no mistake, Nurkić has had a rough year. His numbers are down across the board, where he most notably is turning the ball over at alarming rates and struggling to finish in the paint.

The rebounding issues, specifically, have correlated with his absence so far, though. Since he was suspended on Dec. 28, the Suns have been dead last in the league in opponent offensive rebounding rate. Until that date, they were eighth in the NBA in this stat.

That is not by any means to say that the team's struggles are due to the absence of Nurkić. They were severely underperforming with him on the court as well, as his minus-7.0 on/off differential would indicate. His playing time has been drastically reduced for a reason.

The team's defensive performance has been plummeting, their 3-point shooting volume has regressed and they are sitting outside the Play-In with a negative net rating on the season after Monday's loss. They've put in far too many soulless performances this year to overcome what looks like a roster that is watching the rest of the NBA pass them by.

The panic meter is only continuing to rise, prompting more and more pundits to contemplate whether drastic changes are needed. If this team can't search within themselves to find the heart to play up to the level of their talent, we could start seeing even more sparks flying out of Phoenix. Team Governor Mat Ishbia has shown in his short tenure that he is not one to sit on his hands, so we may need to be on the lookout for even more changes.