The Suns were painfully bad at defense last season, allowing 113.3 points per game and fouling more than any other team in the NBA. This year, experience and the addition of Josh Jackson could change that, Scott Bordow of the Arizona Republic writes.
- Now down to 232 pounds, the lightest he’s been in years, 24-year-old Anthony Bennett is ready to resuscitate his career, Scott Bordow of the Arizona Republic writes. The former first-overall pick is on a non-guaranteed deal with the Suns.
SEPTEMBER 26: The Suns have officially signed Warren to a rookie scale extension, the team announced today in a press release.
“We are excited about extending T.J.’s contract,” Suns GM Ryan McDonough said in a statement. “T.J. has improved every year and we think he has the potential to continue to grow as he just begins to approach his prime. We view T.J. as an important part of our young core going forward and we are glad that we were able to reach an agreement on this extension.”
SEPTEMBER 25: The Suns and forward T.J. Warren have come to terms on a four-year, $50MM extension, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN tweets.
Warren will make $3.15MM this season and was eligible to become a restricted free agent next summer. The deadline for the extension was October 16.
Warren became a starter last season, averaging 14.4 PPG and 5.1 RPG in 31.0 MPG. He appeared in 66 games, 59 as a starter, and missed 13 games in November and December due to a head injury. The 6’8” Warren, who is expected to be Suns’ starting small forward again this season, has made 50.2% of his shots during his three-year career but needs work on his 3-point game (31.2%).
Phoenix can afford to extend a young player on the rise, as it has just $62.7MM on guaranteed commitments for the 2018/19 season, not including Warren’s new deal.
The Suns only lose $2MM on cap space because Warren had a $9.5MM free agent cap hold next offseason, Bobby Marks of ESPN notes.
With Warren in the fold, the Suns should have a stable roster in the next couple of years. The only significant player headed to unrestricted free agency next summer is center Alex Len, who recently signed his qualifying offer.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Hoops Rumors is breaking down the 2017 offseason for all 30 NBA teams, revisiting the summer’s free agent signings, trades, draft picks, departures, and more. We’ll evaluate each team’s moves from the last several months and look ahead to what the 2017/18 season holds for all 30 franchises. Today, we’re focusing on the Phoenix Suns.
Signings:
- Alan Williams: Three years, $17.04MM. Second year non-guaranteed. Third year team option.
- Alex Len: One year, $4.188MM. Signed qualifying offer.
- Mike James: Two-way contract. One year.
- Alec Peters: Two-way contract.
Camp invitees:
- Anthony Bennett: One year, minimum salary. Summer contract.
- Peter Jok: One year, minimum salary. Exhibits nine and 10.
Trades:
- Acquired Troy Daniels and a 2018 second-round pick (second-most favorable of Grizzlies, Heat, and Hornets second-rounders) from the Grizzlies in exchange for Suns’ own 2018 second-round pick (top-55 protected)
Draft picks:
- 1-4: Josh Jackson — Signed to rookie contract.
- 2-32: Davon Reed — Signed to four-year, minimum salary contract. Second year partially guaranteed. Third and fourth years non-guaranteed.
- 2-54: Alec Peters — Signed to two-way contract.
Extensions:
- T.J. Warren: Four years, $50MM (reported)
Departing players:
- Leandro Barbosa (waived)
- Ronnie Price
Other offseason news:
- Extended general manager Ryan McDonough.
- Hired James Jones as vice president of basketball operations.
- Brandon Knight expected to miss 2017/18 season due to ACL tear.
- Alan Williams expected to be out until March due to meniscus tear.
- Davon Reed expected to be out until at least December due to meniscus tear.
Salary cap situation:
- Operating under the cap and under the salary floor. Could create up to $13MM+ in cap space (carrying approximately $85.4MM in guaranteed salary), plus full room exception ($4.328MM) still available.
Check out the Phoenix Suns’ full roster and depth chart at RosterResource.com.
Story of the summer:
The Suns entered the 2017 offseason armed with cap room and ready to make a major splash in free agency or on the trade market. After having been linked to Kevin Love in several trade rumors, Phoenix lined up meetings with the top two free agent big men on the market, Blake Griffin and Paul Millsap.
Ultimately, Love remained in Cleveland, Griffin cancelled his meeting with the Suns after quickly coming to the terms with the Clippers, and the Suns reconsidered their direction. Less than 24 hours after the free agent period began, the Suns backed off their pursuit of Millsap, opting instead to continue taking a patient approach to the rebuilding process and to potentially use their cap space to accommodate salary dumps rather than to sign an impact free agent.
The Suns may have been tempted to deviate from that approach later in the summer when Kyrie Irving made his trade request — Irving is younger than Love, Griffin, or Millsap, and would’ve been a better fit for the Suns’ timeline. However, acquiring Cleveland’s star point guard likely would have cost the Suns Josh Jackson and a future first-round pick, and despite being the club most frequently linked to Irving, Phoenix wasn’t willing to pay that price and compromise its rebuild.
That looks to me like the right call. Clawing their way back to the upper ranks of the Western Conference will be a long, challenging road for the Suns, but going out and compromising their future cap flexibility to land an impact player would have represented an ill-advised short cut. This roster has a long way to go before it’s ready to contend, and adding a single star wouldn’t have changed that.
Suns big man Alan Williams underwent a meniscus repair of his right knee today in Phoenix, the team announced in a press release. According to the announcement from the Suns, Williams will miss most of the 2017/18 season after undergoing the procedure — he’s on track to return to full basketball activity in approximately six months.
Williams suffered the injury last Monday when he landed on a teammate’s foot during a workout, per Marc Spears and Chris Haynes of ESPN. It’s another unfortunate blow for a Suns team that has already been hit hard by knee injuries this offseason. Brandon Knight tore his ACL and is expected to miss the entire 2017/18 season, while rookie Davon Reed will miss several months with a meniscus injury of his own.
[RELATED: Phoenix Suns’ depth chart at RosterResource.com]
Williams, 24, took a step forward with the Suns in 2016/17. Although he only averaged 15.1 minutes per contest in 47 games overall, he was very productive when he played, recording 17.6 points and 14.8 rebounds per 36 minutes, and seemed poised to take on a bigger role going forward for the club.
A free agent this summer, Williams signed a three-year deal worth just over $17MM with the Suns. The second and third years of that contract are non-guaranteed, so it will be interesting to see if the young forward/center remains in Phoenix’s long-term plans next summer.
In the short term, bigs like Marquese Chriss, Dragan Bender, and the newly re-signed Alex Len could see a few extra minutes in the Suns’ frontcourt. If the team uses some smaller lineups, players like T.J. Warren, Jared Dudley or rookie Josh Jackson could see expanded roles.
Alex Len has signed a one-year, $4.2MM qualifying offer to return to the Suns, according to Shams Charania of The Vertical. Len, a restricted free agent, will delay unrestricted free agency until 2018 by returning to Phoenix via the qualifying offer.
Len, 24, enjoyed another productive season off the Suns’ bench in 2016/17, averaging 8.0 PPG and 6.6 RPG in 77 games (34 starts). The 7’1″ center and his representation discussed several sign-and-trade scenarios but none panned out, according to Charania’s report.
The former fifth overall pick from the 2013 draft has spent all four of his NBA seasons in Phoenix. For his career, Len has averaged 6.9 PPG and 6.2 RPG in 266 games.
ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski first reported on Thursday that Len intended to sign his qualifying offer and return to Phoenix for at least one more season. For more details on the Suns center and his free agency decision, be sure to check out our initial story from Thursday.
The Grizzlies have traded shooting guard Troy Daniels to the Suns in exchange for a second-round pick, Shams Charania of The Vertical tweets.
John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports 98.7, also privy to the deal, adds that the Suns will also acquire a second-round pick in the deal and that the pick the Grizzlies will acquire is heavily protected.
As details emerged, Charania has summarized the deal as follows: Phoenix receives Daniels and the middle of Memphis’ second-rounders (they hold their own, Charlotte’s and Miami’s). The Grizz, in contrast, who free up nearly $4MM in cap room this season by pulling the trigger here, acquire the top-55 protected second-rounder.
Shipping Daniels to Phoenix drops Memphis down to 19 players (15 guaranteed), freeing up a roster spot and creating a little extra spending flexibility as they pursue a deal with restricted free agent JaMychal Green.
Having spent time with four franchises over the course of his four-year career, Daniels’ impact on the court is negligible. He hasn’t, however, been given a significant chance to showcase his abilities.
Daniels’ best season in the NBA thus far was his first. As a rookie with the Rockets, he posted 8.4 points in 17.7 minutes per game.
1:36pm: The Suns have officially signed Bennett, according to RealGM’s transactions log.
10:00am: The Suns have reached an agreement to sign former first overall pick Anthony Bennett to a contract, reports Shams Charania of The Vertical (via Twitter). According to Charania, Bennett’s deal with Phoenix will be non-guaranteed.
Bennett, 24, has bounced around the NBA since being selected with the No. 1 overall pick by the Cavaliers in the 2013 draft. After spending his rookie season in Cleveland, Bennett was part of the trade that sent Kevin Love to the Cavs, and played for the Timberwolves in his second season. Since then, the power forward has also spent time with the Raptors and Nets, but didn’t see much action for either club. In total, he has averaged 4.4 PPG and 3.1 RPG in 151 career NBA games (12.6 MPG).
Bennett’s most recent NBA experience came early in the 2016/17 season, when he appeared in 23 games for Brooklyn. He was waived by the Nets in January and headed to Turkey to play with Fenerbache for the rest of the season. According to Ryan Wolstat of The Toronto Sun (Twitter link), the UNLV product battled an ankle injury over the summer, but he seems to be healthy enough now to get a look from the Suns.
Currently, the Suns are carrying 12 players on fully guaranteed contracts, which could leave an opening for Bennett to make the team’s regular season roster. However, Alex Len is expected to sign his qualifying offer soon, and would claim one of those final three spots. Derrick Jones, who is on a non-guaranteed contract, looks like a good bet to make the roster too, so Bennett may end up competing with the likes of Elijah Millsap and Peter Jok to be Phoenix’s 15th man.
Another restricted free agent is set to come off the board, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, who reports that Suns big man Alex Len intends to sign his one-year qualifying offer before training camp gets underway. Signing that qualifying offer will put Len on track to become an unrestricted free agent in 2018.
Len, the fifth overall pick in the 2013 draft, has spent the first four years of his NBA career in Phoenix, but the Suns remain reluctant to commit to him for the long term. Wojnarowski suggests in his report that the club wants to study the 24-year-old’s progress during the 2017/18 season before offering him a lucrative long-term contract. Of course, by putting a potential extension off for another year, the Suns will lose the right of first refusal that they had this offseason.
While Len and his camp investigated the possibility of signing an offer sheet with a rival suitor, or working out a sign-and-trade arrangement with the Suns, none of those scenarios were as appealing as the prospect of hitting unrestricted free agency next year, says Wojnarowski.
In 2016/17, Len appeared in 77 games for the Suns, starting 34. He averaged 8.0 PPG and 6.6 RPG in 20.3 MPG, chipping in 1.3 BPG with a .497 FG%. Like Nerlens Noel, the other RFA to sign a qualifying offer this offseason, Len didn’t meet the starter criteria, so his qualifying offer was worth just $4.188MM instead of $6.4MM.
After adding that $4.188MM salary for Len to their books, the Suns will still only be at about $82MM in guaranteed money for the 2017/18 season. That number will increase a little if Phoenix carries a couple non-guaranteed salaries, but the club will remain well below the salary floor.
Unless the Suns intend to make a run at another restricted free agent – JaMychal Green or Nikola Mirotic – that cap room is unlikely to be put toward a major signing, but it could be used to accommodate a salary dump in a trade later this season.
With Len on a one-year deal, the Suns will also retain plenty of cap space for the summer of 2018. Currently, the club has less than $60MM in guaranteed money on its cap for 2018/19, per Basketball Insiders, though that figure will increase once Phoenix exercises options on Devin Booker, Marquese Chriss, and a couple other players.
Once Len officially signs his qualifying offer, he’ll gain the ability to veto trades during the 2017/18 league year, since he would lose his Bird rights if he’s dealt.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
ESPN’s Zach Lowe and Brian Windhorst have published an expansive and well-researched report on NBA teams’ finances, providing details on the league’s revenue sharing system, the impact from national and local television deals, and how a lack of net income for NBA franchises could push the league toward considering relocation or expansion.
The report is wide-ranging and detailed, so we’re going to tackle it by dividing it up into several sections, but it’s certainly worth reading in full to get a better picture of whether things stand in the NBA. Let’s dive in…
Which teams are losing money?
- Nine teams reportedly lost money last season, even after revenue sharing. Those clubs were the Hawks, Nets, Pistons, Grizzlies, Magic, Wizards, Bucks, Cavaliers, and Spurs. The latter two teams – Cleveland and San Antonio – initially came out ahead, but paid into the league’s revenue sharing program, pushing them into the red.
- Meanwhile, the Hornets, Kings, Pacers, Pelicans, Suns, Timberwolves, and Trail Blazers also would have lost money based on net income if not for revenue sharing, according to Lowe and Windhorst.
- As a league, the NBA is still doing very well — the overall net income for the 30 teams combined was $530MM, per ESPN. That number also only takes into account basketball income, and doesn’t include income generated via non-basketball events for teams that own their arenas.
- The players’ union and its economists have long been skeptical of NBA teams’ bookkeeping, alleging that clubs are using techniques to make themselves appear less profitable than they actually are, Windhorst and Lowe note. The union has the power to conduct its own audit of several teams per season, and it has begun to take advantage of that power — according to ESPN, the union audited five teams last season, and the new CBA will allow up to 10 teams to be audited going forward.
How does the gap between large and small market teams impact income?
- Even after paying $49MM in revenue sharing, the Lakers finished the 2016/17 with a $115MM profit in terms of net income, per ESPN. That was the highest profit in the NBA, ahead of the second-place Warriors, and could be attributed in large part to the $149MM the Lakers received from their huge local media rights deals.
- On the other end of the spectrum, the Grizzlies earned a league-low $9.4MM in local media rights, which significantly affected their bottom line — even after receiving $32MM in revenue sharing, Memphis lost money for the season. The Grizzlies will start a new TV deal this year that should help boost their revenue, but it still won’t come anywhere close to matching deals like the Lakers‘.
- The biggest local TV deals help drive up the NBA’s salary cap, with teams like the Lakers and Knicks earning in excess of $100MM from their media agreements. According to the ESPN report, the Knicks made $10MM more on their TV deal than the six lowest-earning teams combined.
- As one owner explained to ESPN, “National revenues drive up the cap, but local revenues are needed to keep up with player salaries. If a team can’t generate enough local revenues, they lose money.”
- Playoff revenue from a big-market team like the Warriors also helps push up the salary cap. Sources tell Lowe and Windhorst that Golden State made about $44.3MM in net income from just nine home playoff games last season, more than doubling the playoff revenue of the next-best team (the Cavaliers at about $20MM).
How is revenue sharing affecting teams’ earnings?
- Ten teams paid into the NBA’s revenue sharing system in 2016/17, with 15 teams receiving that money. The Sixers, Raptors, Nets, Heat, and Mavericks neither paid nor received any revenue sharing money. Four teams – the Warriors, Lakers, Bulls, and Knicks – accounted for $144MM of the total $201MM paid in revenue sharing.
- While there’s general agreement throughout the NBA that revenue sharing is working as intended, some teams have “bristled about the current scale of monetary redistribution,” according to ESPN. “The need for revenue sharing was supposed to be for special circumstances, not permanent subsidies,” one large-market team owner said.
- The Grizzlies, Hornets, Pacers, Bucks, and Jazz have each received at least $15MM apiece in each of the last four years via revenue sharing.
- However, not all small-market teams receive revenue-sharing money — if a team outperforms its expectations based on market size, it forfeits its right to that money. For instance, the Thunder and Spurs have each paid into revenue sharing for the last six years.
Why might league-wide income issues lead to relocation or expansion?
- At least one team owner has raised the idea of expansion, since an expansion fee for a new franchise could exceed $1 billion and it wouldn’t be subject to splitting 50/50 with players. A $1 billion expansion fee split 30 ways would work out to $33MM+ per team.
- Meanwhile, larger-market teams who aren’t thrilled about their revenue-sharing fees have suggested that small-market clubs losing money every year should consider relocating to bigger markets, sources tell ESPN.
- As Lowe and Windhorst observe, the Pistons – who lost more money than any other team last season – are undergoing a relocation of sorts, moving from the suburbs to downtown Detroit, in the hopes that the move will help boost revenue.
What are the next steps? Are changes coming?
- The gap between the most and least profitable NBA teams is expected to be addressed at the NBA’s Board of Governors meeting next week, per Lowe and Windhorst. Team owners have scheduled a half-day review of the league’s revenue sharing system.
- Obviously, large- and small-market teams view the issue differently. While some large-market teams have complained about the revenue sharing system, they’re outnumbered, with smaller-market teams pushing those more successful clubs to share more of their profits, according to ESPN.
- Trail Blazers owner Paul Allen is one of the loudest voices pushing for more “robust” revenue sharing, sources tell ESPN. Some team owners have argued that the system should ensure all teams make a profit, while one even suggested every team should be guaranteed a $20MM profit. There will be “pushback” on those ideas, Lowe and Windhorst note. “This is a club where everyone knows the rules when they buy in,” one owner said.
- On the other end of the spectrum, some teams have floated the idea of limiting the amount of revenue sharing money a team can receive if it has been taking payments for several consecutive years.
- Any change to the revenue sharing system that is formally proposed at the NBA’s Board of Governors meeting would require a simple majority (16 votes to 14) to pass.