The Official 2025 Offseason Thread Part 3

[Saberestar]

Reading up on our future pick situation. Hypothetically we could get the #2 pick next year (2026) as long as Washington is picking #1?

https://fanspo.com/nba/teams/Suns/24/draft-picks

We don't have any FRP in 2026. After 8272727 swaps our pick will go to the Charlotte Hornets.

But we have a 2nd in 2026. The worse from the Nuggets and GSW.

[BobbieL]

We'd be further still had we not traded for Williams. He's probably on the injured list right now.

I just hope the Suns had plans in place for Martin, Richards, O'Neale and Allen BEFORE trading for Williams

Williams isn't worth being a second apron team or stretching/waiving beal for ...

Based off the past history. Probably not. They don’t get the benefit of doubt at this point. It’s up to this FO to earn that trust.

I just have this feeling Beal will be stretch/waived and many fans will be happy, flex will be happy until three years from now when they sitll have over $20m of dead cap because Ishbia had to sign Bol Bol or Damion Lee and some ML player this year

[ImNotMcDiSwear]

*I come in peace*

Was a big fan of your guys draft, was hoping Orlando took Fleming w/ #25. Perfect upside play for Phoenix.

I was browsing your guys board for some more intel on Tyus as it seems more and more likely that Orlando will be signing him come 6PM to lead their bench unit but couldn’t find much.

Was just wondering if you guys can briefly describe the good, the bad and the ugly when it comes to Jones through your lens. I know he had a rough season, but not sure if that was mainly due to team construction or he regressed personally.

Any thoughts would be immensely appreciated!

Welcome to the madhouse that is our team forum.

Tyus Jones is a pretty solid but low usage PG. He's a good ball control guard and doesn't take too many risks with the ball, hence his low turnover rate. Decent three point shooter. Not a great defender but quick enough to stay in front of his man.

I would probably say he's better suited to being the lead guard coming off the bench but as a starter... I'm less impressed. We thought he was going to really show us something and that we'd be really reliant on his ability but what we were shown was that his reliability wasn't all that and he was benched in favor of a harder playing rookie.

It could be a situational kind of thing and maybe he just wasn't the fit we needed; then again, Budenholzer really didn't seem to let him do his job in running the offense and despite his ability, seemingly favored Booker and Beal to be the primary ball handler. We paid for it when that happened, so it's hard to say if that's more of a tell on Jones or Budenholzer.

I bolded this part because it bears emphasizing. He's actually a great shooter, but it's all catch-and-shoot. That combined with his ball protection make him a very positive contributor in the right role (see MEM, 2022-23). If you give him the ball on offense and surround him with players who can create open looks, his positives on offense should outweigh the fact that he's unable to defend pro players one-on-one. Bringing him off the bench also reduces the opportunities the opponent will have to target him on defense with their best (starting) players.

He essentially can't guard pro players, so he's neutral at best as a starter. And if you take the ball out of his hands, he's basically just a tiny catch-and-shoot guy - which turns him into a negative on the court.

Those were the two things that worked against him in Phoenix. We needed a starter - he's a great backup. He needs the ball in his hands - but no Suns coach can resist the temptation to put the ball in Devin Booker's hands.

[DirtyDez]

Reading up on our future pick situation. Hypothetically we could get the #2 pick next year (2026) as long as Washington is picking #1?

https://fanspo.com/nba/teams/Suns/24/draft-picks

I think realgm has more information. To my understanding, WAS receives better of WAS/PHX. MEM receives the better of MEM and the remainder of WAS/PHX. CHA receives the remainder of that, with nothing coming back to us.

In short, 2026 is gone.

When did we trade our 26’ 1st? I thought the KD package was 23/25/27/29?

[Waylay13]

Would yall do Knecht for Richards? Kinda makes sense for both tbh

I would rather look for a couple 2nd round picks. We dont need another small forward on top of Dunn, Brooks, etc. and more importantly we dont need the salary from him for 2 more years.

[dremill24]

Reading up on our future pick situation. Hypothetically we could get the #2 pick next year (2026) as long as Washington is picking #1?

https://fanspo.com/nba/teams/Suns/24/draft-picks

I think realgm has more information. To my understanding, WAS receives better of WAS/PHX. MEM receives the better of MEM and the remainder of WAS/PHX. CHA receives the remainder of that, with nothing coming back to us.

In short, 2026 is gone.

When did we trade our 26’ 1st? I thought the KD package was 23/25/27/29?

They traded it to Charlotte in the Nurkic deal

[Sunsdeuce]

I just hope the Suns had plans in place for Martin, Richards, O'Neale and Allen BEFORE trading for Williams

Williams isn't worth being a second apron team or stretching/waiving beal for ...

Based off the past history. Probably not. They don’t get the benefit of doubt at this point. It’s up to this FO to earn that trust.

I just have this feeling Beal will be stretch/waived and many fans will be happy, flex will be happy until three years from now when they sitll have over $20m of dead cap because Ishbia had to sign Bol Bol or Damion Lee and some ML player this year

Basically they can’t stretch and waive. They had an expert on the radio. You can’t go over 15% of the cap. Because they already did a stretch and waive with EJ and Little, Beal would make it go over the 15%. So that’s out the window.

[DirtyDez]

Reading up on our future pick situation. Hypothetically we could get the #2 pick next year (2026) as long as Washington is picking #1?

https://fanspo.com/nba/teams/Suns/24/draft-picks

We don't have any FRP in 2026. After 8272727 swaps our pick will go to the Charlotte Hornets.

But we have a 2nd in 2026. The worse from the Nuggets and GSW.

Thought we traded swap rights not the pick itself because of the Stepian rule.

[SkyBill40]

I just hope the Suns had plans in place for Martin, Richards, O'Neale and Allen BEFORE trading for Williams

Williams isn't worth being a second apron team or stretching/waiving beal for ...

Based off the past history. Probably not. They don’t get the benefit of doubt at this point. It’s up to this FO to earn that trust.

I just have this feeling Beal will be stretch/waived and many fans will be happy, flex will be happy until three years from now when they sitll have over $20m of dead cap because Ishbia had to sign Bol Bol or Damion Lee and some ML player this year

if we stretch Beal, we're dooming ourselves for five seasons. Just leaving him as-is covers TWO seasons. I'm not a fan of his contract, but being shortsighted and stretching him is going to hurt more than help. I've said that several times and cannot emphasize it enough.

[dremill24]

Reading up on our future pick situation. Hypothetically we could get the #2 pick next year (2026) as long as Washington is picking #1?

https://fanspo.com/nba/teams/Suns/24/draft-picks

We don't have any FRP in 2026. After 8272727 swaps our pick will go to the Charlotte Hornets.

But we have a 2nd in 2026. The worse from the Nuggets and GSW.

Thought we traded swap rights not the pick itself because of the Stepian rule.

After trading the PHX '31 1st to Utah for picks in '25, '27, and '29, the outright rights to the '26 1st became available to move under Stepien, which they did when they sent it to Charlotte

[BobbieL]

Based off the past history. Probably not. They don’t get the benefit of doubt at this point. It’s up to this FO to earn that trust.

I just have this feeling Beal will be stretch/waived and many fans will be happy, flex will be happy until three years from now when they sitll have over $20m of dead cap because Ishbia had to sign Bol Bol or Damion Lee and some ML player this year

if we stretch Beal, we're dooming ourselves for five seasons. Just leaving him as-is covers TWO seasons. I'm not a fan of his contract, but being shortsighted and stretching him is going to hurt more than help. I've said that several times and cannot emphasize it enough.

And if you really think about it - this year is almost like a lost year. Nobody expects the play-offs. So get through this year and you can either buy him out next summer like the Blazers did with Ayton or he becomes an expiring

But this free agent class is not good - there isn't a player worth stretching him for unless Mat just wants to save $80-100m in lux tax

[ImNotMcDiSwear]

I think realgm has more information. To my understanding, WAS receives better of WAS/PHX. MEM receives the better of MEM and the remainder of WAS/PHX. CHA receives the remainder of that, with nothing coming back to us.

In short, 2026 is gone.

When did we trade our 26’ 1st? I thought the KD package was 23/25/27/29?

They traded it to Charlotte in the Nurkic deal

Actually, we swapped with WAS (Beal), swapped the remainder of WAS/PHX with ORL (I forget which ORL deal, but ORL traded that right to MEM in the Bane deal), swapped the remainder of WAS/PHX/ORL with MEM last summer (Roddy?), then (I think... because this is complicated) we swapped the remainder of WAS/PHX/ORL/MEM to CHA in the Okogie deal, before finally trading the remainder of WAS/PHX/ORL/MEM/CHA to Charlotte in the Nurkic deal.

[DirtyDez]

We don't have any FRP in 2026. After 8272727 swaps our pick will go to the Charlotte Hornets.

But we have a 2nd in 2026. The worse from the Nuggets and GSW.

Thought we traded swap rights not the pick itself because of the Stepian rule.

After trading the PHX '31 1st to Utah for picks in '25, '27, and '29, the outright rights to the '26 1st became available to move under Stepien, which they did when they sent it to Charlotte

Got it. My error was thinking Nurkic and Richard’s was that same deal. Charlotte violated us in the Nurk deal Jesus.

[SkyBill40]

I just have this feeling Beal will be stretch/waived and many fans will be happy, flex will be happy until three years from now when they sitll have over $20m of dead cap because Ishbia had to sign Bol Bol or Damion Lee and some ML player this year

if we stretch Beal, we're dooming ourselves for five seasons. Just leaving him as-is covers TWO seasons. I'm not a fan of his contract, but being shortsighted and stretching him is going to hurt more than help. I've said that several times and cannot emphasize it enough.

And if you really think about it - this year is almost like a lost year. Nobody expects the play-offs. So get through this year and you can either buy him out next summer like the Blazers did with Ayton or he becomes an expiring

But this free agent class is not good - there isn't a player worth stretching him for unless Mat just wants to save $80-100m in lux tax

It doesn't look like stretching him is even on the table given the cap limitations. We need to figure out a way to get further below the aprons and only then would that become available - but it's still a bad idea.

[matt131]

Official, which either means he passed his physical or we didn’t do one.

Read on Twitter

[Sunsdeuce]

Per Fred Katz of The Athletic regarding Beal

1) The only way to stretch and Waive Beal is for Beal to agree on taking less money. No reason for him to do that. suns already stretched and Waived two other players which would put them over the allowable 15%. Basically stretch and waive is not an option.

2) Beal moved his entire family to AZ and his kids are going to school here and doesn’t want to uproot them again. His family comes first. He values being a good father first and foremost.

3) Beal would be open to a trade but has to be a very specific location and situation that best fits him and his family.

Here part of the info he provided.
https://sports.yahoo.com/article/nba-reporter-explains-why-phoenix-020000689.html

[SkyBill40]

Official, which either means he passed his physical or we didn’t do one.

Read on Twitter

Either way?

Ugh. Cringe.

[BobbieL]

Per Fred Katz of The Athletic regarding Beal

1) The only way to stretch and Waive Beal is for Beal to agree on taking less money. No reason for him to do that. suns already stretched and Waived two other players which would put them over the allowable 15%. Basically stretch and waive is not an option.

2) Beal moved his entire family to AZ and his kids are going to school here and doesn’t want to uproot them again. His family comes first. He values being a good father first and foremost.

3) Beal would be open to a trade but has to be a very specific location and situation that best fits him and his family.

Here part of the info he provided.
https://sports.yahoo.com/article/nba-reporter-explains-why-phoenix-020000689.html

Some fans may not realize it, Flex may not realize it - -but Beal playing out this year and next year and becoming a large expiring in 12 months and at worst a bunch of cap space in two summers is the BEST thing long term for the franchise

Beal would have to take a $30m reduction and my guess, he would not get that on the open market for two years.

[Qwigglez]

Just keep Beal. Suns will try and trade Grayson Allen for pure cap space to get below the 2nd apron, and Suns will need someone off the bench to create shots and make buckets. I'd keep Royce O'Neal if the Suns are able to get under the 2nd apron, and see if an opportunity arises later where he could get traded, or just hold onto him if Suns need the extra rotational player in the lineup.

[Waylay13]

Overall I think it is going to be a slow day for Suns news. We likely have to wait till the 7th for official announcement of Maluach, Fleming and Brea; since the picks from Houston were used in those picks. let see what happens next week before we get too worked up.