The Phoenix Suns have been part of trade rumors for months, as they were the longtime preferred destination of Jimmy Butler. The problem for the Suns was the guy they wanted to trade, Bradley Beal, has a no-trade clause and did not want to move again, putting them back at square one.
After a lot of buzz regarding a Kevin Durant to the Warriors deal (that may have brought them Butler), Durant seemingly shut that down by making it clear he had no interest in a reunion with Golden State. The Warriors and Heat then cut the Suns out of talks and worked out a deal themselves to send Butler to Golden State and Andrew Wiggins to Miami. That left Phoenix without a clear path to an upgrade, but as their shellacking at the hands of the Thunder on Wednesday night proved, they desperately needed one.
On Thursday, the Suns finally found a trade to make, turning Jusuf Nurkic and their 2026 first round pick (which they could trade after turning a future first into three firsts in a trade with the Jazz) into Cody Martin and a bit more from the Hornets, per Shams Charania.
Suns get: Cody Martin, Vasilije Micic, 2026 second round pick
Hornets get: Jusuf Nurkic, 2026 first round pick
Martin is averaging 7.8 points, 4.5 rebounds, and 2.3 assists per game for the Hornets this season. A couple days after his twin brother Caleb was traded from Philly to Dallas, Cody now also is on the move to a Western Conference team fighting for Play-In position. Nurkic has completely fallen out of the rotation in Phoenix and heads to a Charlotte team that is focused on ping-pong balls at the moment. There is a big role for Nurkic if he wants to play out the year and try to build his value back up after Charlotte has been active this year in trading away bigs for draft assets, sending Nick Richards to Phoenix earlier this season and flipping Mark Williams to the Lakers on Wednesday night. The first round pick they received is Phoenix’s 2026 first, but three teams (Washington, Orlando, Memphis) have swap rights to that pick, so the Hornets will receive the worst of those four teams’ picks in 2026.