Insider Bluntly Shuts Down Suns, James Harden Rumors

Harden, one of the best scorers of all time, is certainly on the tail end of his career — though some believe the soon-to-be 37-year-old can offer a splash of dynamic iso scoring opposite of Devin Booker in the team's backcourt.

However, a splash move for Harden probably isn't in the mix for the Suns — especially after team president Mat Ishbia vowed to sidestep another massive roll of the dice after missing on big names such as Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal.

"I like this team. I like where we're going. I like the direction of the organization. I like the culture that we've built. I like the identity that we have, and we're not going to do anything silly to mess that up," Ishbia previously said.

The Suns opted to focus on continuity this offseason, re-signing the likes of Collin Gillespie, Mark Williams and Jordan Goodwin. Phoenix did add Koa Peat (draft) and Miles Bridges (via trade) to the mix alongside Luke Kennard in free agency.

However, much of the Suns' core is still intact. Which was by design.

"The big focus is continuity," Ishbia also added at his end-of-season press conference.

"Having a year where we have the same coaching staff, most of the same players and also a team where I think the players are going to get better, you know, I think JO [Jordan Ott] wasn't hired till early June last year and then we didn't make a lot of trades and draft [picks] — we didn't have our team together till July."

Harden, while a fun add on a video game such as 2K, probably isn't in the plans for Phoenix.

That's likely best for both team and player at this point in time.