The Phoenix Suns traded draft picks and key members of the 2021 finals team, brought in a superstar, an All-Star guard and changed head coaches to finally bring the city an NBA championship.

Team owner Mat Ishbia said his new-look Suns have the “best team in the league,” but added, “we’ve got to play it out.”

So far this season, the Suns haven’t played like a title contender and players recently voiced frustration with their current state.

“We understand it’s not going to be easy, it’s not an easy league and we have enough guys on this team who have been around the block,” Devin Booker said. “They understand that. It’s time to pick it up.”

Injuries have hindered them. At least 10 players have missed at least one game with an injury.

That alone has factored into 10-plus different starting lineups and slowed down developing chemistry, but when a team has a Big 3 like the Suns do, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Having three of the game’s most prolific scorers in Kevin Durant, a future first-ballot Hall of Famer, Bradley Beal and Booker put Phoenix on the championship-or-else path.

Giving up so much to acquire Durant and Beal cemented a narrative that if they don’t win a championship with this group, people will further question their franchise-changing decisions.

February 2023: Traded Mikal Bridges, Cam Johnson, Jae Crowder, four first-round picks and a pick swap to the Brooklyn Nets for T.J. Warren and Durant right before the trade deadline. Bridges and Crowder were starters and Johnson was a sixth man on the 2021 finals team and the squad that won a franchise-record 64 games the following season.

Durant has been special in his first full season in Phoenix. He’s on course to becoming only the second player in NBA history to average 30-plus points on 50-plus percent shooting from the field and 45-plus percent shooting from 3 – at age 35.

Only Stephen Curry has done that in his second MVP season in 2015-16. Durant should be deep in the MVP conversation right now, but he’s part of an average team.

Numbers are nice. Winning with numbers, much nicer.

For the curious, the Suns didn’t retain Warren, who currently isn’t in the NBA.

May 2023: Fired Monty Williams, the 2021-22 NBA Coach of the Year, and hired Frank Vogel, who won an NBA championship coaching LeBron James and the 2019-20 Los Angeles Lakers. The Lakers fired Vogel two seasons later, but the Suns love the idea of having a head coach with a championship resume.

June 2023: Traded Chris Paul, Landry Shamet, four first-round pick swaps and six second-round picks to the Washington Wizards for Isaiah Todd, Jordan Goodwin and Beal. Paul was the catalyst for the finals squad, but the Suns weren’t trying to pay the 38-year-old point guard what’s left on his four-year, $120-million deal. He’s due $30.8 million this season and $30 million next season that’s non-guaranteed.

For the curious, Phoenix traded Todd to Memphis and regained three second-round picks.

September 2023: Traded Deandre Ayton and rookie Toumani Camara to Portland right before the start of training camp as part of a three-team deal that sent Damian Lillard to Milwaukee and landed 7-footer Jusuf Nurkic, Nassir Little, Grayson Allen and Keon Johnson in Phoenix.

Ayton, the top overall pick in the 2018 draft out of Arizona, was a huge part of the young core that helped take the Suns from winning 19 games his rookie season to reaching the finals two years later.

The Suns drafted Camara in the second round of the 2023 draft, was high on him, but traded the athletic forward out of Dayton who has since earned a starting spot with the Blazers.

For the curious, Phoenix cut Johnson in camp, but he ended up with the Nets.

The Suns made those mega moves within a year’s time, are $21.5 million over the luxury tax, and are projected to pay a $50.7 million tax penalty.

Teams don’t do all of that to fall short of a title.

Ishbia, the billionaire mortgage lender who purchased the Suns and WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury for a record $4 billion, put his chips in the middle of the table eyeing a championship payoff in June.

The Suns worked magic with veteran minimum deals to help build a solid roster to complement Booker, Durant and Beal.

So far, not so good.

Beal’s injuries are a big reason why.

He’s played just six games, missing time mostly due to low-back issues and his right ankle on Dec. 15 against New York when landing on Knicks guard Donte DiVincenzo’s foot on a 3 early in a 139-122 loss.

The Suns carved out a two-week window to rehab Beal’s ankle and will re-evaluate the three-time All-Star guard in early January.

The Big 3 have only played two games together.

Two.

Everything starts and ends with Booker, Durant and Beal. The Suns hope the new year brings them better health, particularly with those three, so they can finally figure out an identity.

Vogel is a defensive-driven coach. His Indiana Pacers and Lakers were both excellent on that side of the floor, but the Suns are in the bottom half of the defensive rating.

Durant and Booker have carried the offense as they’ve accounted for nearly 40% of the team’s scoring. The Suns run a substantial amount of iso for two of the game’s best 1-on-1 players, but the offense has gone stagnant for stretches that have factored in some losses.

However, all is not lost.

The Suns have more than half a season left. They should get Beal back in early January and, with a cleaner bill of health, find themselves in enough time for a strong playoff run.

The Suns are months away from the playoffs, but they’ve done too much to come up short of a championship again.

Have opinion about current state of the Suns? Reach Suns Insider Duane Rankin at dmrankin@gannett.com or contact him at 480-787-1240. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at @DuaneRankin.

Support local journalism. Start your online subscription.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Why it's NBA championship or bust for Phoenix Suns in 2024