Willingness to spend money only goes so far, especially for the Phoenix Suns under the NBA’s second tax apron.
It’s been well-covered that the Suns without any massive moves this offseason could only fill out the roster with minimum contracts that only increase in pay depending on NBA service time.
For 28-year-old Tyus Jones, who was coming off a two-year, $29 million contract, the amount is just $2.1 million.
But as the market for his services dried up, with backup roles behind Memphis’ Ja Morant and Atlanta’s Trae Young reportedly out there, he opted for a prove-it year with Phoenix on the minimum.
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The main draw: Starting alongside Devin Booker, Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal.
Suns and Mercury CEO Josh Bartelstein told Arizona Sports’ Burns & Gambo on Thursday that he believes landing Jones for less than market value is also evidence that Phoenix is doing the right things to help attract players in ways that go beyond the basketball product.
“There’s really no negotiations for a minimum,” he said. “On the periphery, we can offer all these other things like the experience here, how we treat your family, the role. If someone would have offered a multi-year huge contract, we’re not kidding ourselves. Of course that’s not going to happen (here). But once he gets into a range where you’re looking to reestablish your market maybe next summer, I believe we have incredible things to offer here. Our view is we can win a lot of ties and things that are close.”
What helped Phoenix win on the margins to sign Tyus Jones?
Bartelstein said the Suns and Mercury spent $2 million on family space in the arena. The franchises have added staffing for concierge services to help new hires and their partners look for houses and schools. It gets down to something as simple as helping them with a dinner reservation, Bartelstein said.
On Wednesday, Jones spoke at length about his fit on the court.
But he also mentioned that Phoenix’s resources made his family feel at home.
“Big family man, so you’re going to see my kids running around, you’re going to see my wife at every game, you’re going to see my mom in town,” he said. “But again, that was the feel that I got again, from Josh, from James, from Coach Bud and that’s why it was such an easy decision for me.”
Ultimately, luck played a part in Phoenix adding Jones.
Bartelstein was surprised the five-time league-leader in assist-to-turnover ratio coming off a career year with the Washington Wizards didn’t find a multi-year deal to start somewhere.
Bartelstein told Burns & Gambo that Phoenix initially showed interest in Jones knowing the long odds.
And at some point, they determined they had a real shot.
“Kevin Bradbury, his agent, and I are close, so (Suns vice president of basketball operations and GM) James Jones and myself had been kind of checking in with Kevin in the last two weeks and just kind of seeing what (Jones’) market was and understanding we offer something very unique to go compete for a championship, the ability to start, to play in Phoenix to be with Bud and to be with really, really good players,” Bartelstein said.
“So as we kinda kept checking in … you could kind of see the excitement and change in the talks with Tyus. And then we recruited him. We made a plan of, hey, we’re going to treat this like a college recruit and go all out and talk to his wife and be able to show why his kids would love being here. It was a two-week process that every day we kind of had different touch-points. We got that call and he said he was in, we were ecstatic.”
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