The championship window is rap...

The injury report daily diagnoses what ails the 12th-place Phoenix Suns as a potential playoff club. What is wrong with the Western Conference's reigning No. 1 seed as a contender is more complex.

On another weekend when All-Star guards Devin Booker and Chris Paul were out, the Suns slid from the last play-in tournament place behind the once-forgotten Oklahoma City Thunder. Jae Crowder, last season's starting stretch forward, has not played since asking a trade in September. Cameron Johnson, this season's starting stretch forward, underwent knee surgery eight games into the season. Only Mikal Bridges and Deandre Ayton have played two-thirds of their games this season, out of the top seven players that constituted Phoenix's playoff rotation the previous two seasons, and even Ayton has missed a number of games due to injury.

It's not hard to figure out why the Suns are 21-24 in mid-January. In six games, their presumed starting five has only played 67 minutes together. They have also outscored their opponents by 43 points in those minutes, giving Suns supporters optimism. Johnson is expected to return from meniscus surgery "very soon," Paul is dealing with a stiff hip, and Booker's injured groin will be assessed next week.

What happens next? Clinging to tiny sample sizes as a predictor of postseason success is a fool's errand, especially when the writing is on the wall on the court. For as good as their best five-man unit has been in 67 minutes, the Suns have done little to alleviate worries about how they disintegrated in Game 7 of the Western Conference playoffs at home against Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks.

Paul, 37, came into this season with 45,000 regular-season and playoff minutes under his belt. Tony Parker was the previous point guard to achieve that mark, and he couldn't endure a complete season after doing so. Parker played 56 games as a reserve for the Charlotte Hornets before retiring in 2019.

The Suns place a high value on Paul. Even if his assist and turnover rates are the second and third lowest of his career, he still orchestrates the offense and manages the ball. More alarming are his 13.1 points per game and 44% 2-point shooting this season, both of which are career lows by a wide margin.

It was unthinkable that Kevin Durant, the Brooklyn Nets' superstar, would be in a more stable environment than the Suns few months after requesting a trade to them, yet here we are. Over the summer, Phoenix allegedly offered "Bridges and a couple of first-round draft selections" for Durant, but the deal fell through. The Suns are now desperate, making them less appealing as negotiators and destinations in trades.

This is the end of the road for Phoenix's once-promising team. Just as the Suns' participation in the Finals inspired their 64-win regular season, an ugly second-round defeat has degraded into mediocrity, and it will take more than an aging point guard to right the ship. The only issue is whether Jones is innovative and ambitious enough to build a contender around Booker before he, too, dries up.

Is new club owner Mat Ishbia really going to want to pay Paul and Ayton $60 million a year for the next two years when they only provide half the value to the team? If not, who will provide equivalent value for both? The Suns may argue that the 24-year-old Ayton might reclaim his once-rising popularity with a change of scenery, and adding draft equity to his pay facilitates that discussion. This week, Ayton became trade-eligible, but he has veto authority over any prospective move this season.