Suns center Jusuf Nurkic was unceremoniously benched. He has not played in nine straight Suns games, all by coach Mike Budenholzer's decision. Prior to that, Budenholzer had moved Nurkic to a reserve role after he had started 23 games for the Suns this season.

Jusuf Nurkić and Mike Budenholzer aren’t in a good place. The Phoenix Suns center, who lost his starting job earlier this month alongside Bradley Beal, revealed that he went two months without speaking with his head coach.