All-in, bide time, or rebuild?
Welcome to Archie Frazer, one of our new voices here at Bright Side of the Sun!
The upcoming offseason is vital for the Phoenix Suns. Their ‘big three’ hasn’t worked. While availability and coaching have played a role, there’s little justification for running this version of the team back.
It’s easy to say in hindsight that maybe trading for Kevin Durant wasn’t the move, but who can blame them? And who’s to say it wouldn’t have worked? We never really got to see it play out before the addition of Bradley Beal, and yet that may have been the move that put the nail in the coffin. Acquiring a third star with that salary was always going to be a risky move, but to bring in one whose skill set heavily overlaps with the talent already on the roster was a strange decision. Beal’s infamous no-trade clause has left Phoenix with minimal flexibility, and as we know, they have struggled since to reshape the roster into something that can compete.
The Beal situation is tough. A team built around Booker will struggle to start him with his defensive frailties, which is likely why we saw him come off the bench as a 6th man at times last season. One idea put forward by some is to cut him, waive, and stretch his contract. This is impossible, however, for it is against the rules for dead cap space to exceed 15% of the salary cap if you buy him out completely. You would need Beal to eat some money in the deal, as a $97 million buyout is the most you can do.
Because of this, the Suns are stuck with Beal until at least the last year of his deal (likely the full duration). This has a huge effect on the strategy going forward. The Suns have to try to make it work with Beal; however, the main thing is that they’re in a position to compete when that contract expires.
Now it is decision time. With little draft capital to play with and one year left on Durant’s deal, the Suns need to decide what direction they want to go in. This could be a sliding doors moment in their quest to win with franchise icon Devin Booker. Which direction do they think best positions them to push forward and compete starting in summer 2027?
Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports
All In
If the Suns want to see their past decisions through, they need to trade for players who are going to help them win now in Booker’s prime. This would mean getting the best value deal in a KD trade, making what few moves you can from there and trusting head coach Jordan Ott to build a system to make things work.
A trade down this line of thinking could involve the Raptors for someone like Brandon Ingram, or the Wolves for a Julius Randle. The players coming in from deals like these won’t be perfect fits, so it comes down to the coaching staff to develop a winning system that can incorporate these talents. This places significant pressure on rookie head coach Jordan Ott to deliver quickly — a tough ask.
The Suns would prefer prime-age players on good contracts as opposed to draft picks in this kind of deal, further helping their goal of winning now.
Bide Time
Another direction they could take would be to focus on fit and culture rather than pure talent. In this scenario, the Suns have decided that Booker and Beal, combined with whatever they can get for KD, are not going to make them a serious contender.
They instead decide to retool their roster, cleaning their salary sheet and creating a proper system around Booker, ready for when Beal’s max contract expires. That is then their window, Booker would be 31, so they would still have a few years left with him at his absolute best to finally challenge again. This avenue allows Coach Ott time to develop his system, Ishbia to implement the culture that he raves about, and general manager Brian Gregory the chance to reshape the roster into one that plays winning basketball.
Going down this avenue allows them to get under the second apron and finally regain some much-needed flexibility. This can be used to redistribute salary into more important areas in the team and potentially target free agency options in the 2027 offseason, given the huge lump of salary coming off the cap sheet in the Bradley Beal contract. This gives them a stable foundation to push on from, and more options to take advantage of.
Rebuild
Objectively, the best way for the Suns to maximize their chance of winning championships is to trade KD, trade Booker, get their picks back, and enter a full rebuild.
Tanking without trading Booker would be impossible, especially with Beal alongside. There is just too much talent to be a 15-25 win team that would realistically have a strong chance of getting top three picks in drafts going forward.
Breaking down the roster from a team with this much talent would be a big move in the NBA sphere, maybe the biggest tear down we have seen since the Brooklyn Nets. This only means that the Suns would have a larger asset pool than many teams tanking at the moment, giving them a quicker route to the top again.
There are a number of reasons as to why this will not happen, though. Mat Ishbia’s comments regarding rebuilds are a big one, and the franchise’s attachment to Booker is another.
Barring a sudden turnaround, the Suns are expected to make some major changes this summer. But not in Mat Ishbia’s all-in approach.
“For better or worse, there’s no ‘trust the process’ to Mat Ishbia.”
ESPN story on the state of the Suns: https://t.co/YPs8w9IMpz
— Tim MacMahon (@espn_macmahon) March 14, 2025
Devin Booker is the Phoenix Suns. He is a franchise legend in the eyes of many fans, and even though it may be a tough ask, winning with him would just mean that little bit more, wouldn’t it? The Phoenix Suns aren’t the Boston Celtics, they aren’t the Los Angeles Lakers, they can’t just churn out talent and consistently win rings.
Having a player like Booker who is THEIRS means a lot to a fanbase that has never experienced their team win a championship. We saw a similar situation when Dallas traded Luka Doncic; it devastated the fanbase and caused a lot of trust to be lost in the ownership. Given the lack of trust fans already have with Mat Ishbia and his past failings, could that relationship ever recover if Booker were traded? Why should the fans trust them to perfectly execute a rebuild based on what they have seen so far? This is why I don’t believe a rebuild is a feasible option here.
So what do they do? Everyone has their own ideas, as a fan myself, I think I like the idea of waiting out Beal’s contract and being picky for the talent they actually want in a KD trade. I don’t believe the Suns are near contention right now, but maybe they can get there in 2027, ’28, ’29, and onwards. I want to win with Booker, and if we push too hard too soon and it fails again, he may want out. Losing Booker without maximising his value would be disastrous – a scenario the Suns must avoid at all costs.
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