Darius Bazley, in any shape or form, won the trade deadline when he was traded to the Phoenix Suns.
It’s not even a dig on Oklahoma City. The problem with OKC is how they treated Bazley this season. He started the season with a different number. Now normally, this is basically nothing, but to lose it for Chet Holmgren who, while the second overall pick of the 2022 NBA Draft, has yet to play a game with the team.
This meant they saw Bazley as merely a placeholder for the next top star they are going to get and I am not blaming them. With the multitude of picks they got for a decade, it's easy for us to expect that Bazley, Aleksej Pokusevski, Jeremiah Robinson-Earl, Tre Mann, Aaron Wiggins, Jalen Williams, Jaylin Williams, and the next ten first-rounders they are going to get will have rollercoaster minutes for the squad.
But it didn’t stop there as obviously, Bazley has been riding the bench since becoming a “liability.” Now I don’t really believe he is one. Just because a player can’t do one thing, doesn’t mean he’s a dud with the rest. Bazley is an above-average defender and if given the motivation, he can be an asset more than people believe. But that's the thing - motivation. People look down on Udonis Haslem for sticking it with Miami even if he's just their resident baller cheerleader. However, Haslem is the veteran presence that motivates the Heat's young stars. Through the years, we have seen guys like Tyler Herro, Kendrick Nunn, Gabe Vincent, Caleb Martin, Omer Yurtseven, and Max Strus, play beyond their draft stock (or undrafted stock to some) because of Haslem's veteran presence. I don't know if we can count Mike Muscala as OKC's veteran presence but especially now that Muscala has moved to Boston, all of these players are pretty much crabs who in order to get ahead, need to pull down their teammates.
Bazley must be thinking of this now more than ever because he went from a developing starter to a forgotten man on the bench this season. This is Bazley's final year and I doubt if he'll get a contract higher than the 4.2 million he will get this season.
I am a fan of Dario Saric before he moved to America but I have been collecting Darius Bazley rookie cards right from the go because I thought he’ll amount to something. In some ways, this is Bazley’s first bad year in the league. He is also playing for a team that is unlawfully stacked with options. I always thought OKC will have this mentality of weeding the best from the bunch and farming the rest to other teams.
At least Bazley is going to ride a bench for a team with a future mindset. If he is good but misunderstood, then learning from Kevin Durant is going to be awesome for Bazley. I initially thought he was a good player to get for the Dallas Mavericks but Phoenix will give him a chance to learn the ropes with better leadership. Phoenix just lost Mikal Bridges and Cam Johnson - two serviceable players for their playoff run that weren't initially seen as stars in their first few years in the league. In fact, the future is still out on whether or not they will be stars in the league. The only safe bet here is that Bazley is going to learn a lot of things from Chris Paul, Devin Booker, and Durant.
Heck, we might see Bazley becoming a valuable commodity on their playoff run.
And while yes, there is a chance that Bazley is going to be left on the bench and this would start his decline. With that said, at least he's going to have a career decline because he is playing behind Kevin Durant in the depth chart rather than some same-age player that OKC is going to acquire.