6:58pm: According to John Gambadoro of 98.7 FM Arizona’s Sports Station, Suns guard Devin Booker will be out indefinitely as he undergoes surgery on his hand.
The Suns, who are said to be on the hunt for guards, will need to address the dearth of playmakers sooner than later if it looks like Booker’s injury could stretch into the regular season.
Some more names have emerged in the Suns’ search for a point guard, according to John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports 98.7 FM, who reports that the team has targeted the Clippers’ Patrick Beverley, the Pacers’ Cory Joseph and the Nets’ Spencer Dinwiddie.
Beverley may be expendable in L.A. after the Clippers matched an offer sheet this week for Tyrone Wallace. That move gives the team 17 players with guaranteed contracts and adds to a crowded backcourt that also includes Avery Bradley, Jawun Evans, Milos Teodosic, Sindarius Thornwell, Lou Williams and first-round picks Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jerome Robinson.
Beverley has a non-guaranteed deal that will pay him a little more than $5MM for the upcoming season. The 30-year-old received full medical clearance in June after having microfracture and meniscus surgery on his knee last November. He started all 11 games he appeared in before the injury, posting a 12.2/4.1/2.9 line, and is considered among the NBA’s best defensive point guards.
Joseph, 27, has a $7.9MM expiring contract. One of the league’s best sixth men, he averaged 7.9/3.2/3.2 while playing all 82 games in his first year with the Pacers. However, Indiana has Darren Collison entrenched as its starter and selected Aaron Holiday in the first round of this year’s draft.
Dinwiddie, 25, would come much cheaper at $1.6MM and is also on an expiring contract. He played 80 games for the Nets last season with a 12.6/3.2/6.6 line.
The Suns have been in the market for point guard help since trading Brandon Knight to the Rockets last month. Isaiah Canaan, Shaquille Harrison, De’Anthony Melton and Elie Okobo are the only options on the current roster.
Suns forward Ryan Anderson lowered his guaranteed salary to $15.4MM for the final year of his contract in 2019/2020 but it can be traded for the prior fully guaranteed value of $21.4MM, Tim Bontemps of the Washington Post tweets. Anderson agreed to the reduction to facilitate the trade from the Rockets. However, since his contract was signed under the previous CBA, its trade value remains unchanged. The Suns will have until July 10, 2019 to decide whether they want to guarantee Anderson’s full salary for the final year of his contract or waive him, in which case they’d still have to pay the reduced guarantee.
The Lakers and Luol Deng agreed to a buyout earlier this week, which will allow Los Angeles the ability to offer a top free agent a max contract next offseason. Adrian Wojnarowski reports (via Twitter) that the final figure on what Deng agreed to give up in the agreement came out to $7.3MM, slightly less than what was previously reported.
The Lakers are projected to have approximately $38MM in cap space next offseason, enough to be a major player in the market. While we wait to see if the team makes any other moves, let’s check out some notes from their rivals in the Western Conference:
Mikal Bridges has the ability to immediately contribute for the Suns but the decision to trade up to the No. 10 spot was all about the future, Jonathan Tjarks of The Ringer writes. Bridges’ combination of top 3-point shooting and elite length make him a perfect long-term fit next to Devin Booker.
In the best-case scenario for the Suns, Bridges can be a J.J. Redick/Kyle Korver-type of shooter on one side of the court without being a liability on the defensive end, Tjarks adds. The scribe, noting that Bridges defended all five positions at times while playing at Villanova, envisions the wing finding success at the next level.
Here’s more from Phoenix:
The Celtics’ Terry Rozier and the Nets’ Spencer Dinwiddie are two of the logical trade targets for the Suns in their search for a point guard, according to Frank Urbina of HoopsHype. Rozier is a solid two-way player coming off a career year but the Suns would likely have to offer a package that included an unprotected first-rounder to catch Boston’s attention. A trade for Dinwiddie would be more plausible and he’d be a good fit with Phoenix considering his size, perimeter shooting and pick-and-roll prowess, Urbina continues. The Clippers’ Patrick Beverley, the Cavaliers’ George Hill and the Hornets’ Kemba Walker are some of the other names Urbina throws out as potential targets. The Suns are searching for a starting point guard after trading away Brandon Knight to the Rockets last week.
The Suns acquired Ryan Anderson, a veteran stretch four they like, in their trade with the Rockets last week, but the prize of the deal looks to be rookie guard De’Anthony Melton. Melton was highly regarded by several draft experts and flashed his NBA potential in Las Vegas in July with a strong Summer League performance.
However, Melton remains unsigned, meaning the Suns will have to lock him up to an NBA contract now that they’ve traded for him. And because Melton was a second-round pick, he’s not subject to any sort of rookie scale — Phoenix will have to use cap room or an exception to sign him.
NBA teams have increasingly used either cap space or the mid-level exception to sign these second-round picks, since doing so allows clubs to offer three- or four-year contracts to those players. Nearly all of this year’s second-rounders have signed for at least three years, with only a small handful of exceptions, such as Jevon Carter of the Grizzlies and Alize Johnson of the Pacers.
[RELATED: 2018 NBA Draft Pick Signings]
The Suns’ options for signing Melton are somewhat limited though, since the team has used up its cap room, going over the cap as part of that trade with Houston. Here are Phoenix’s potential avenues for signing Melton:
Minimum salary exception:
The minimum salary exception can be used by any team at virtually any time. However, the exception limits contract offers to two years and – of course – the minimum salary.
Going this route would put Melton on track to reach restricted free agency in 2020, at which point the Suns could match any offer and the Arenas provision would limit other teams’ ability to do a huge offer sheet. This is how the Grizzlies signed Carter.
It wouldn’t be the end of the world to only offer Melton two years, but there’s a chance he’d hit free agency just as he’s starting to hit his stride.
Room exception:
Like the minimum salary exception, the room exception can’t be used for contract offers exceeding two years. The difference is that the Suns could offer more money with the room exception, going all the way up to $4.449MM in year one.
It’s possible that the Suns will go this route, but there’s little incentive to do so. A guaranteed two-year, minimum-salary contract is already a solid outcome for the No. 46 overall pick, so if Phoenix makes a two-year offer, I’d expect the club to stick to the minimum salary exception.
Creating cap space:
Having used cap room this offseason, the Suns have forfeited their right to the full mid-level exception, meaning the only way they can offer Melton more than two years is to do so with cap space. Right now, Phoenix is over the cap, but there are a couple ways the team could sneak back under…
(Note: We’re assuming Isaiah Canaan‘s non-guaranteed deal is a summer contract that doesn’t currently count against the cap. If that’s not the case, he would need to be waived as part of most of the plans outlined below.)
It may ultimately not matter much whether Melton signs a two- or three-year deal with the Suns. But if the club makes a roster move in the near future that looks designed to trim team salary, Melton’s first NBA contract is probably the motivating factor.
The Heat are willing to part with Goran Dragic, and he may be the answer for the Suns in their quest for a point guard, tweets John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports 98.7 in Phoenix.
The Suns traded away presumed starter Brandon Knight this week in a deal that brought Ryan Anderson and De’Anthony Melton from the Rockets. Knight missed all of last season with an ACL tear, leaving Phoenix to try several options at the point with limited success after Eric Bledsoe was traded to Milwaukee. Isaiah Canaan is the most experienced point guard on the roster, while Melton, Shaquille Harrison and Elie Okobo are other options.
Dragic, who started his career with the Suns and later returned for two and a half productive seasons, would provide an instant solution to that problem. The 32-year-old is coming off another stellar year in Miami, posting a 17.3/4.1/4.8 line in 75 games.
With an $18.1MM salary for the upcoming season and a $19.25MM player option for 2019/20, Dragic is the third-highest-paid player on a team that is already above the tax threshold with nearly $127MM in guaranteed salary. While that might explain his availability, the Heat were the sixth seed in the East last year and are hoping for another postseason trip. It’s not clear what Phoenix could offer in return that would be enough for Miami to part with Dragic.
Gambadoro adds that the Suns understand they need to find a point guard, but won’t rush the process (Twitter link). With more than three weeks until training camp and six weeks until the season starts, they plan to take time to explore their options.
AUGUST 31: The trade is official, the Rockets and Suns announced in separate statements.
AUGUST 30: The Rockets and Suns have agreed to a trade, reports ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (via Twitter). According to Wojnarowski, Phoenix will acquire Ryan Anderson and De’Anthony Melton from Houston in exchange for Brandon Knight and Marquese Chriss.
Anderson has been on the trade block in Houston for over a year, with his expensive long-term contract having stood in the way of a deal until now. While the Rockets will finally shed the two years and $41.69MM remaining on Anderson’s deal, they’ll take back another pricey multiyear contract — Knight is owed $30.28MM over the next two seasons.
Chriss will earn $3.21MM in 2018/19 and has a team option worth just over $4MM for 2019/20. The Rockets will have to make a decision on that option by October 31 of this year. As for Melton, he has yet to sign his first NBA contract, so Houston is technically trading his draft rights to Phoenix. The Suns will have the opportunity to lock him up once the trade is official.
While the in-the-tax Rockets will save some money as a result of the swap, the on-court implications are even more interesting than the financial ones. Anderson’s impressive three-point range allowed Houston to stretch the floor on offense, but his defensive shortcoming made him unplayable in certain matchups — he didn’t see much action in the Western Conference Finals against the Warriors last season, for instance.
In place of Anderson and Melton, the Rockets will be receiving two players with intriguing upside. Knight missed the entire 2017/18 season with an ACL tear, but isn’t far removed from averaging 19.6 PPG and 5.1 APG in 52 games for the Suns in 2015/16. Assuming he’s back to full health, Knight could provide Houston with scoring and play-making off the bench behind Chris Paul and James Harden.
Chriss, meanwhile, has yet to develop into the sort of difference-making big man the Suns hoped for when they drafted him eighth overall in 2016. However, he’s still just 21 years old and has shown flashes of potential during his first two NBA seasons. It’s not clear how he’ll fit into the Rockets’ plans.
The Suns, apparently not ready to bet on Chriss taking significant steps forward, will replace him in the frontcourt with Anderson, a veteran stretch four capable of playing alongside No. 1 pick Deandre Ayton. Phoenix will also add Melton, a 2018 second-round pick who had an impressive Summer League showing for the Rockets, filling the box score with 16.4 PPG, 7.2 RPG, 4.0 APG, and 3.0 SPG in five games in Las Vegas.
The deal will leave the Suns lacking in experience and depth at point guard. Second-rounders Melton and Elie Okobo could see minutes immediately, with Shaquille Harrison and Isaiah Canaan also in the mix.
It will be interesting to see whether Phoenix has another move up its sleeve to fortify that point guard position or if the club simply plans to lean more heavily on Devin Booker as its primary play-maker. In his full report on the trade, Wojnarowski notes that the Suns may envision a larger role for Harrison.
The Rockets will create a modest traded player exception worth about $2.58MM in the deal.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.