The Phoenix Suns have been a mixed bag as of late, at times looking like legitimate contenders and at others appearing listless, including in Wednesday’s home loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves. The game was a rematch of last year’s first round playoff series between the two teams,

Phoenix currently sits 10th in the Western Conference standings with a 21-21 record. This is not what they expected after starting the season 8-1 and having one of the NBA’s highest payrolls, mainly due to their superstar trio of Kevin Durant, Devin Booker and Bradley Beal.

This presupposes that the trade for Beal is the original roster construction problem in Phoenix that must be solved -- that under the new collective bargaining agreement, building a team around three max salary players, one of whom is performing far below a max level, is untenable.