Your weekly Inside the Suns analysis straight from the BSotS community who live and breathe the team.
Welcome to Inside the Suns, your weekly deep down analysis of the current Phoenix Suns team.
Each week, the Fantable — a round table of Bright Siders — give their takes on the Suns’ latest issues and news.
Fantable Questions of the Week
Q1 – Orlando was 30th in 3-pointers made and 3-point percentage last season, and the Suns have three point shooters (Grayson Allen and Royce O’Neale) that will likely be on the trade block this summer. Who on their roster would you consider to be a good (and reasonable) return for GA or RO in a trade?
Ashton: First of all, I would like to ask the board how many Orlando Magic games they watched on NBA League Pass. I watched, checking… oh, zero. If you watched three Magic games, then you are a true NBA basketball savant. I watch Orlando to see what theme park ticket price increases incur, and the occasional University of Central Florida game in the Big 12.
Let’s review what the Magic did this season. If you are like me, you may have missed it. They have one of the best (at least ascending) front courts in Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner, who were often injured. Thus forcing more three-point volume on their guards. Their best guard in Jalen Suggs, is injured. Magic went 41-41 on the season and took a game from the Celtics in the playoffs before bowing out. All this is to say, I really cannot get a read on this team. Perhaps, some of you will have better comments below.
I have read some wild trades online involving the Magic, so at least I can get a benchmark of what is out there. This one comes courtesy of ClutchPoints, but there are some other crazy ones out there that do not involve GA or RO.
OldAz: I don’t know much about Orlando, but it didn’t take much reading to find out that Orlando has plenty of length and defense, so I would be very happy if they would covet either Grayson Allen or Royce O’Neill. My ideal would be to swap Allen (since his contract is worth more) for either of their PFs, but there is no way I would believe Orlando would give up Paolo or Jonathan Isaac for GA. So this fits the “good” part, but I am not sure it is reasonable. If Royce is moved I would love to get back Wendell Carter, but again I am not sure this is reasonable. Either way, if Orlando needs the shooting, the Suns need to get back some of Orlando’s length, athleticism, and defense.
Rod: First off, Orlando is quite likely to be over the 1st tax apron after July 1 so any trade between them and the Suns would be best done before then.
With a $15.6 mil salary, GA is the most valuable by salary in trade and would be the most likely player they would want in my opinion. He’s also the best option for the Suns to bring back more than just a single player in that trade as O’Neale’s salary is over $6 mil less. The Suns certainly aren’t going to get great return for Allen from them but they’re relatively rich in bigs so I don’t think that getting either Goga Bitadze or Wendell Carter Jr. (less likely) back as part of the deal would be too much to ask for. If that was all they sent back, I think I might actually like the deal even more as it would be a nice benefit for the Suns salary wise in moving under the 2nd tax apron (and maybe we could get them to toss in a future draft pick as well). But if that doesn’t work for them then whatever salary filler they wanted to add to the deal also wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing as the Suns are going to need some players to keep the end of the bench seats warm in 2025-26.
With Royce’s smaller salary and his age, I wouldn’t expect that much in return from Orlando just for him, and I don’t see a deal that would actually help the Suns out. Best to look to other teams if dealing RO is the aim.
As a side note, Orlando also has two 1st round picks — #16 & #25 — in this year’s draft. If a trade could be worked out with them sometime before the draft occurs, I’d try my best to at least get them to swap #25 for the Suns’ 29th pick as part of the deal.
Voita: The Suns find themselves in a rare position of strength when it comes to perimeter shooting off the bench. With both Grayson Allen and Royce O’Neale under contract, they already possess dependable floor spacing, something many contenders scramble to secure. That gives them leverage. It allows them to approach trade talks from a place of surplus, not desperation.
So when you turn your eyes to Orlando, a team with more size than sizzle, the equation shifts. The Magic don’t have the kind of assets that spark immediate excitement. Nothing jaw-dropping. Nothing that stirs the imagination. But they do have something Phoenix sorely lacks: frontcourt depth.
If this offseason becomes an exercise in addressing needs, then size is the direction you go. Jonathan Isaac. Goga Bitadze. Wendell Carter, Jr. All three bring the kind of physicality and presence that the Suns missed in crucial moments last season.
In a perfect world, it’s Wendell Carter, Jr. who ends up in Phoenix. A legitimate starting-caliber center with the versatility to defend and the touch to finish. Paired with Nick Richards as his backup, the Suns could finally boast a frontcourt rotation that isn’t just passable, it’s reliable.
Is it championship-caliber? That remains to be seen. But it’s a step toward balance. Toward roster functionality. And in this era of roster construction, that alone would be a quiet victory.
Q2 – Miami is rumored to have interest in trading for Kevin Durant, and the following trade was put forth in an SI article:
- Heat receive: Kevin Durant
- Suns receive: Andrew Wiggins, Duncan Robinson, Nikola Jovic, 2029 lottery-protected first-round pick, first-round pick swap in 2031
What are your thoughts on this trade idea?
Ashton: Oh gee, another trade scenario! I am going to do my best to not do a Fantable write-up with a 1000-word count, so I will keep this one simple. You do it. Why? Because what the Suns do not have is flexibility in their roster. And having more pieces gives you more flexibility to upgrade the team in trades in the future. A couple two-way players may need to hit the road to make all this fit (sorry CG), but the players above are all candidates for a change of scenery and can fill positions of need. This is a fine place to start a rebuild and seems like a no-brainer.
OldAz: The biggest hurdle (to me) is the front office making a clear decision that KD will be traded and sticking with it. They can’t really build a roster while they play the game of “we will trade KD ‘if’ the offer is good enough”. That puts every other decision on hold and likely wastes all of next season before they can turn the page. That being said, if this is truly the best offer for an aging KD with 1 year left on his deal, I don’t hate it. All 3 are forwards, and while 2 are only listed at 6’7” they are at least proven NBA players that could possibly be moved again if needed. It is nowhere near what the Suns gave up for KD, but everyone needs to get past the idea of that being even remotely possible.
Rod: I would hope for a better offer from some other team, but this one wouldn’t be too bad to accept if offered. The Suns would add 3 younger rotation-level players in exchange for 1 and cut their salary obligations by $2.1 mil. Both Wiggins and Robinson are under contract for 2 more seasons, and Jovic is on the final year of his rookie contract. I’ve never been a big fan of Wiggins but he’s turned into a pretty solid starter and I think Jovic and Robinson could be at least solid bench/rotation players for the Suns.
I’d like to see better draft pick compensation returning in the deal but this wouldn’t be a bad trade in my opinion. And as another small plus, it sends KD back to the Eastern Conference instead of sending him to one of our Western Conference competitors.
Voita: Andrew Wiggins’ name pops up, and I immediately recoil. Yes, he had that incredible run in 2022, helping Golden State secure a title. But that was the anomaly, not the standard. Since then, he’s shown us what he truly is: a rotation player. Solid? Sure. Foundational? Absolutely not. And certainly not worth the franchise-level paycheck he’s been drawing.
But when you zoom out and look at the full picture of what a trade like this could offer, things shift. You’re not just getting Wiggins, you’re adding a promising young piece in Nikola Jovic, gaining a couple of decent draft picks, and injecting some much-needed youth into a roster that’s been aging fast.
Let’s be real: you’re not going to get a massive haul for Kevin Durant this offseason. Not with his age, his salary, and the current constraints of the CBA. Best-case scenario? A mini bidding war. But even then, teams will be cautious. No one wants to blow up their cap sheet for a player who, while still elite, isn’t a long-term asset anymore.
So if this is the deal on the table, I’d take it. Not because I love it. But because I understand it. It’s one of the better combinations you’re likely to get. And more importantly, it signals a pivot. A change in direction. And right now, that’s what the Suns need most.
Q3 – If the Suns get under the 2nd tax apron this summer, they will have access to the taxpayer MLE ($5.68 mil) and be able to aggregate players in trades again but doing either would also immediately hard cap them at the 2nd tax apron. What is your opinion on whether they should try to avoid becoming hard-capped or not in this situation?
NOTE: Teams that are hard-capped cannot, under any circumstances pass that salary amount. Even signing a vet minimum-salary player or a player to a 10-day contract wouldn’t be allowed if that amount of salary would push the team over the hard cap.
Ashton: This is such a Rod Argent CBA question that he had to give me clarity on what is being asked. It turns out to be pretty simple. There is no loophole to exploit if a team goes under the second apron and then later in the season goes above the first apron back to the second apron. The penalties are immediate.
The Suns simply do not have the requisite salary space without losing major pieces beyond the trade pieces being discussed in this article. This will require some big moves to open it back up. I am almost sure Rod is ready to pounce with his response, so read that, but the improbable Booker and not-so-improbable KD move would open this door up if the sole goal is to stay in the first apron. With that in mind, Ishbia is still seeing his team gain billions in capital. The fans lose on this one. There is simply just not enough cap room left, even with player trades beyond the big three.
OldAz: I have said a few times on this site that efforts to get under the 2nd apron are overblown and would be for minimal return. If any single move puts them back over the apron or even worse if that move then hard caps the team completely, then they would probably have been better off continuing to play within their current constraints. Honestly, what salaries would they aggregate after moving off enough players to get under the apron? And what player is signing for $5.68M who is that much better then a minimum player they would otherwise be pursuing? Unless there is a clear plan for what they will do with that newfound freedom under the 2nd apron, then I simply can’t see how the “juice” would be “worth the squeeze”.
Rod: There’s so much to consider here that there’s no easy answer to this one. Lots of teams operated under hard caps this past season (20!) but it shouldn’t prove to be much of a problem if the Suns get far enough under the 2nd apron to give themselves a fair amount of room to maneuver.
In aggregating salaries in a trade, they would still have to take back less salary than they send out which would actually move them at least a little bit further under a hard cap if they had one so I don’t see that as a problem. Using the TPMLE could be a bit more tricky but they don’t have to use it if it would create an issue.
Getting far enough under the 2nd apron is the issue but probably not a huge obstacle. They can do that by releasing some players with options/non-guaranteed contracts this summer and or trades that bring back substantially less salary than is sent out. In other words, I don’t think that a hard cap would be something the Suns should necessarily try to avoid if they get under the 2nd apron, they’ll just have to be smart (I can already hear the jokes in the comments!) in how they manage it.
Voita: If there’s one thing this version of the Phoenix Suns has done to me — aside from testing my sanity — it’s made me hate the salary cap. Not because they blew past it, but because it forced me to spend hours, days, weeks trying to understand the damn thing. And even after all that? I still don’t know what I’m talking about half the time.
So yeah, fine. Go under the second apron. Make a couple moves that make the team incrementally better next year. Get hard capped. Lock the door behind you. That way the Suns won’t be able to do anything reckless…and I won’t have to open that cursed 600-page collective bargaining agreement ever again. Win-win.
As always, many thanks to our Fantable members for all their extra effort this week!
Suns Trivia/History
May 18, 1993: Charles Barkley scores 28 PTS in the 2nd half of the Suns’ 109-97 win over the San Antonio Spurs in Game 5 of the Western Conference Semis.
Barkley finished with 36 PTS (11-16 FG)/12 REB and Kevin Johnson had 15 PTS/12 AST for the Suns, who took a 3-2 series lead. pic.twitter.com/EjUcJOOy2v
— NBA Cobwebs (@NBACobwebs) May 18, 2025
On May 23, 1976, the Suns played in their first-ever NBA Finals game against the Celtics in Boston. The Suns put up 22 more field goal attempts than the Celtics (99-77), but an uncharacteristically poor shooting night for the Suns (.384 vs .472 season average,) plus being outscored 20-11 at the free throw line led to a 98-87 loss to the Celtics. It was also the only game of the series in which Paul Westphal (8 points on 4 of 17 shooting) failed to score in double digits.
On May 23, 2021, the Suns returned to the playoffs after an 11-year absence and defeated the LA Lakers 99-90 in their first playoff game in over a decade. Devin Booker led the Suns with 34 points while Deandre Ayton added a double-double with 21 points and 16 rebounds to take a 1-0 series lead in their first-round matchup.
On May 25, 1993, newly acquired Sun Charles Barkley won the Maurice Podoloff Trophy as the 1993 NBA Most Valuable Player. Barkley helped lead the Phoenix Suns to a then-franchise and NBA-best 62-20 record during the 1992-93 season and averaged 25.6 points, 12.2 rebounds and 5.1 assists in 76 games.
Last Week’s Poll Results
Last week’s question was “Which of the Suns’ 5 vet minimum contract players would you most want to be re-signed for 2025-26?”
10% – Tyus Jones
20% – Monte Morris
25% – Mason Plumlee
22% – Bol Bol
01% – Damion Lee
22% – None of them
A total of 209 votes were cast.
Quote of the week
“So, the purpose right now and the goal moving into next season is to accumulate defensive-minded tough players. They (the Suns) want to play a defensive-minded, grind-it-out type of game. They want to have a product on a court that fans can appreciate.” – Chris Haynes/Haynes Briefs
Important Future Dates
June 16, 19 or 22 (following the end of the NBA Finals) – Teams can begin negotiating with their own free agents
June 25-26 – NBA Draft
June 30 – Teams may begin negotiating with all other upcoming free agents (beginning at 6 p.m. ET)
July 6 – Teams may begin signing free agents to contracts (12:01 p.m. ET)
July 10-20 – Las Vegas Summer League
This week’s poll is…
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