PHOENIX — Expectations are a dangerous thing, and they have now automatically been set for the Phoenix Suns next season.
Whether they like it or not, there are now actual stakes attached to their future. No more house money. No more fun surprises. No more “no one expected them to be here!” thinking.
Barring any unforeseen events roster-wise, the Suns should be pushing for a top-six spot in the Western Conference next year. With a little more improvement, injury luck and consistency, they should have a chance to do so.
Now knowing this is the bar, though, how will they go about ensuring they reach it with how fierce their competition is?
RELATED STORIES
While a team or two always unexpectedly drops out of the race with a year from hell, the Thunder, Spurs, Nuggets, Lakers, Rockets and Timberwolves are not going anywhere. The Blazers and Jazz will be in the darkhorse mix too, while we’ll see what the Mavericks’ offseason plan building around Cooper Flagg entails. There will be more pushes from the Clippers and Warriors as well.
That’s 11 teams. A dozen if you include the Suns. Will they feel the need to compensate?
Careful with that.
We’ve already seen what can happen in this large of a jump over just one season. As previously covered once the trade deadline passed in February, the 2013-14 Suns were expected to have a win total in the mid-20s before an incredible year saw it hit 48. With that, came a bigger move in the following offseason that didn’t work out (Isaiah Thomas) and the whole team’s dynamic shattered because of it, spiraling a sequence of events that would lead to Brandon Knight, hair salons and oh so much more.
Remember your first time backing out of a parking spot and what the person teaching you would say in a safe, cautious tone?
“Easy does it, here.”
When owner Mat Ishbia spoke last offseason, he ended by saying he will remain patient as long as things are working.
A year later while speaking at exit interviews, he correctly believes things are working, and his bullet points for the summer of “continuity” and “player development” did not come across as an owner that will swing big.
“Our massive massive lean is 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 said.
Suns owner Mat Ishbia wants to continue to lean into the foundation and culture set by the franchise this year.
"Do we take calls about opportunistic trades and ideas? Of course we do. However … we're not going to do anything silly to mess (the culture and identity) up." pic.twitter.com/xm29WP4c49
— Arizona Sports (@AZSports) April 30, 2026
That sounds like an owner who has learned from his past trigger finger on a desire to do something big, and instead, will continue building through patience.
But!
He did also say Devin Booker will lead the Suns to a championship, and that is quite frankly not going to be possible without some sizable addition in talent. And unless Phoenix hits on a one-in-a-thousand draft pick in the next three years, the Suns will have to do so with a big-time trade.
And if Ishbia once more agrees and he thinks a splash has to be made to meet that goal, this guy loves a good cannonball.
The X-factor in all of this is that Booker would likely be grinning from his cabana. He has said he doesn’t want to take part in a rebuild, and he’s turning 30 years old the day before Halloween, all with 11 seasons under his belt already.
With Booker showing signs of regression the last three years, is now the time to go if the Suns see an opportunity they feel would bump them from plucky first-round matchup to legit contender?
You could say Phoenix is in a fairly dire spot from a war chest perspective on the trade market, so why does it matter. The Suns, however, still have the assets to make, not the biggest trade of the offseason, but one of the bigger moves if they are so inclined.
Tradable mid-level salaries like Dillon Brooks and Grayson Allen, with a larger salary like Jalen Green too depending on interest, are present as the base of an offer. From there, young pieces such as Khaman Maluach, Rasheer Fleming and Oso Ighodaro can provide good value.
And then on draft night, the Suns will unlock two tradable first-round picks in 2027 and 2033. The 2027 pick is double-swapped, so it’s not great, but their own 2033 selection is currently untouched and holds real weight. They’ll have three second-rounders: No. 47 this year, plus their own in 2029 and 2033.
It’s not a lot. But if the green goblin mask starts cackling at Ishbia across a usual explosive NBA offseason, there will be phone calls he can make.
While Giannis Antetokounmpo headlines the summer, Phoenix wouldn’t even be able to field a competitive offer in the event he was willing to go to any destination, so no need to spend any brain power on that.
Other star-studded names will still be around, most notably flawed ones.
It sure seems like Ja Morant and the Memphis Grizzlies are splitting. He’s got two years and $86 million left on his max rookie extension, an albatross considering he’s played 79 games in three years while showing immense regression when he was able to get on the court.
Zion Williamson is on the same contract, but with non-guarantees that are riddled with incentives. Both he and Morant don’t figure to yield much of a return for the New Orleans Pelicans or Memphis, and it would be more about just ending the experiment. Williamson quietly played in 62 games this year, although he was not nearly the dominant force he was in years prior.
Both guys, in theory, fill a need. Morant would be the lead playmaker Booker has been missing since Chris Paul was traded, while Williamson is the type of powerful downhill athlete Phoenix has been lacking in the wing/forward rotation for many years now.
There are also a few up-in-the-air offseasons for a few aging big names like Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard, Mavericks guard Kyrie Irving and Warriors forward Draymond Green to monitor.
Then, there is the possibility of a far more fan-friendly pursuit.
The Denver Nuggets and New York Knicks are coming off muddled regular seasons with sketchy beginnings to the postseason. Perhaps one or both make deep runs to nullify the chances of them making a large shift to their roster. But if things keep trending this way, their current dilemmas are progressing toward the idea of trading Cam Johnson and Mikal Bridges.
Johnson has been OK for Denver. So, in other words, not good enough. He was seen as an upgrade over Michael Porter Jr., and instead, Porter ripped off a career year while Johnson battled through injuries and inconsistency. Johnson hasn’t been able to translate his terrific productivity toward the end of his Brooklyn tenure, not rising to the level of a serious tertiary scorer alongside Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray. For the Nuggets, his consistent impact goes more in line with how he performed in his last year with the Suns.
To be clear, Johnson has improved loads since then. The fit, though, hasn’t clicked in the way almost everyone expected. Basketball is just like that sometimes. The Nuggets are expected to extend restricted free agent Peyton Watson after his breakout season, which was not in the cards at all when Johnson was acquired. Johnson is on a $23 million expiring, so that potential extension now looks unlikely for a cheapskate ownership group that could look to get value for him.
Bridges has also regressed considerably back to his earlier days in Phoenix when his offensive impact would randomly wane game by game. It’s genuinely shocking considering how much better he got in Brooklyn as a three-level scorer, and even in his last two years with the Suns. He’s back to fading out of games offensively, and even more surprising, has been a hit-or-miss defender.
Maybe it’s just the pressure of living up to the five first-round picks he was traded for plus the weight of the spotlight New York can put on a guy. Whatever it is, Bridges has become the primary target for blame through a sluggish Knicks season, and next season kicks off his four-year, $150 million extension that currently is a big overpay unless he can snap out of whatever the hell is going on.
Both play for franchises looking to win a title next season, so the Suns’ offers would have to help with that more than anything. But by taking in either player, they’d be helping too. It goes without saying either guy is exactly the type of wing the Suns lack, and you’d assume getting back to a comfortable city and partnership with Booker would get their careers back on track. Of course, there’s still risk to trading for either twin with how the last year has gone for each.
It’s not exclusive to that pair or those two teams. Other playoff teams like Cleveland, Detroit, Houston, Minnesota, Orlando and Toronto could look for a shakeup the Suns swoop in on.
There are other lower-tiered targets that would still be of the same thought process, meaning it’s probably best to avoid the splashier moves.
Jerami Grant has two years and $80 million to go on his contract after a solid year for Portland. Jonathan Kuminga, a long-rumored point of fascination for Phoenix’s front office, has a $24.3 million team option for next season in Atlanta. Like those earlier names, either guy presumably requires a real asset from the Suns beyond the player return, whether it’s one of the few younger players Phoenix has left or one of its two tradable first-round picks on draft night.
Realistically, smaller moves should be of mind. The only major, roster-shifting trade to seek out would be moving one of Brooks or Green, but that would be less about the return and more about rebalancing the dynamic of the offense to maximize Booker. It would be shocking if that was of interest to the front office, one that will still be enamored by Green’s potential after a lost year due to injury and one allured by the intangibles Brooks provided throughout the year.
Suns GM Brian Gregory said the front office “100%” believes the trio will figure it out with more time together, and credited the self-awareness of all three to be critical of their own games to improve where they have to.
So how about something in a more condensed vein?
Is there a team out there willing to part with a pick in the back half of the first round in exchange for some shooting? Allen or Royce O’Neale could help several contenders next season. The Suns’ size issues in part have to do with finding both guys the playing time they deserve, and that’ll be a huge problem again if all three of Booker, Brooks and Green are back.
Cleaning up the rotation by subtracting one guy while adding another young player with a proper physical profile as a bigger wing or forward would be tidy work. Possibilities in that portion of the draft include Houston’s Chris Cenac Jr., Texas’ Dailyn Swain, Alabama’s Amari Allen, Michigan’s Morez Johnson Jr. and Arizona’s Koa Peat. This would be more in line with “rebuilding” but is the type of shift the roster has to consider.
That’s just one example of exactly how the Suns need to upgrade their roster. It’s understandable how delicate they say they will be about it, but they still have to be bold at the same time to try to tinker and change something that was indeed successful.
Just not, you know, too bold.
from Arizona Sports https://ift.tt/RZMaKXw
