The Suns reportedly benched Bradley Beal and Jusuf Nurkić due to a brutal slide

The Phoenix Suns are facing reality.

According to veteran NBA reporter Chris Haynes, Phoenix is ​​benching starters Bradley Beal and Jusuf Nurkić after losing seven of their last eight games, dropping their record to 15-18. Rookie winger Ryan Dunn and veteran big man Mason Plumlee will replace the pair in the starting lineup.

The lineup will be unveiled for the first time on Monday against the Philadelphia 76ers.

The move is an admission that the Suns’ potential superteam of Kevin Durant and Devin Booker is far from materializing, and Beal and Nurkić were the easy levers to pull.

Both players’ stats are well below last year’s, but what’s most telling is that while the Suns have been outscored by 1.9 points per 100 possessions so far this season, they have been outscored by 8.7 points when Beal was on the field and tied for 4.7 points with Nurkić. Both players have been valuable to other teams in the past, but have looked like shells of their former selves lately.

The problem for the Suns is that those two players, plus Durant and Booker, make up 77.5% of their team payroll this season – and 120% of their cap space. The rest of their team represents what they can afford on a shoestring budget, meaning any significant change for the better will have to come from a) the players they already have or b) a trade.

There has been no shortage of trade speculation with the Suns, particularly surrounding Beal. Miami Heat star Jimmy Butler, currently suspended for seven games and clamoring that he wants a trade, was a popular idea, but the Suns would still have to get Beal to waive his no-trade clause and a to find another team to get the finances in order, because the Heat reportedly want nothing to do with Beal’s supermax contract.

The Suns’ draft pick chest is relatively empty after the trades for Durant and Beal, and adding more to the roster would mean further depletion. It’s an unenviable situation for a team when a trio of expensive superstars just isn’t working, and Phoenix is ​​now trying to deal with that.