Phoenix Suns Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Scotto’s Latest: Tucker, Gay, Sumner, Noel

July 21st, 2023 at 10:28am CST by Tristan Tucker

With James Harden‘s trade request still unresolved, teams are monitoring the future of his Sixers teammate P.J. Tucker. According to a report from HoopsHype’s Michael Scotto, Tucker has come up in trade discussions between the 76ers and the Clippers, Harden’s reported preferred destination. The Clippers “covet” Tucker’s ability to guard multiple positions, according to Scotto.

Tucker, a teammate of Harden’s on the Rockets from 2017-21, joined the 76ers last summer on a three-year, $33MM deal to reunite with Harden and former Rockets general manager Daryl Morey. Harden and Tucker are close, with Harden reportedly taking less money last offseason to help bring Tucker aboard one of the Eastern Conference’s top contenders.

Tucker, a 12-year NBA veteran, is owed $11MM this upcoming season and has a player option worth $11.5MM for the 2024/25 season. At 38 years old, Tucker is one of the oldest active players in the NBA but he hasn’t shown any mileage yet, starting in all 75 of his appearances last season and averaging 25.6 minutes.

There’s more from Scotto:

Free agent forward Rudy Gay, who was recently released by the Thunder, is drawing interest from several potential playoff teams, according to Scotto. The Warriors, Lakers, Mavericks, Bulls and Pelicans have all registered interest in Gay, per Scotto. Gay will be 37 by the time next season starts and while his role has diminished in each of the past three seasons, he’s still a seasoned veteran with 17 years of NBA experience. Gay averaged 5.2 points last season. Each team linked to Gay has at least one roster spot open and could offer him a one-year, veteran’s minimum which, for a player with 10+ years of experience, is worth roughly $3.2MM next season.
Free agent guard Edmond Sumner, who was recently let go by the Nets, is also drawing attention from multiple teams, according to Scotto. The Hornets, Bucks, Raptors, Heat and Suns all have registered interest in the 27 year old. Scotto says that some of the named teams appear more likely than others to pursue a deal with Sumner. The Bucks have one roster spot open and no true point guard behind Jrue Holiday, but those around the league expect Milwaukee’s final spot to go to Thanasis Antetokounmpo, according to Scotto. The Suns also just filled their final standard roster spot with Bol Bol, so they would have to create space elsewhere. Meanwhile, the Heat are reportedly in a holding pattern amid Damian Lillard trade talks. On the other hand, the Hornets are searching for veteran point guard help and the Raptors lack point guard depth behind new addition Dennis Schröder.
Before agreeing to a one-year deal with the Kings, center Nerlens Noel drew exploratory interest from the Lakers and Bulls, according to Scotto. The Lakers’ interest, in particular, is noteworthy due to their reported desire to add frontcourt depth to their roster. Free agent big men Christian Wood and Bismack Biyombo have also recently been linked to the Lakers.

Opportunity Available For Bol; Ayton Wants To "Change The Narrative"

July 21st, 2023 at 8:51am CST by Luke Adams

A handful of rotation spots will likely be up for grabs in Phoenix this offseason, so the newest member of the Suns‘ roster, Bol Bol, should have an opportunity to prove that he deserves a regular role and is worthy of more than a minimum-salary contract next summer, writes Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic. Rankin explores where Bol might fit on the team’s depth chart, noting that he could battle frontcourt players like Keita Bates-Diop, Drew Eubanks, and Chimezie Metu for minutes.
Suns center Deandre Ayton, who has been the subject of some trade rumors and has faced criticism for his up-and-down play, is looking to “change the narrative” this offseason, he tells Eyewitness Bahama News (Twitter video link). “Mainly what I’ve been working on five or six days a week since we’ve lost is just motivating myself to change the narrative of what people think about me,” Ayton said (hat tip to Rankin of The Arizona Republic). “… Just unlock whatever it is and just completely just focus on me and change the whole thing.”

Suns To Launch New G League Affiliate

July 20th, 2023 at 8:58am CST by Arthur Hill

The Suns are planning to have a G League affiliate, possibly by the 2024/25 season, writes Shams Charania of The Athletic.

Once the Trail Blazers launch their G League team this fall, Phoenix will be the only NBA franchise without a direct affiliate in the league. The Suns used to operate a team in Northern Arizona, but former owner Robert Sarver sold it to the Pistons in 2020.

“Bringing a G League team to the Valley has been a priority for us, and I am excited that we have begun the process and the wheels are in motion to have a team in Phoenix as early as the 2024/25 season,” owner Mat Ishbia announced. “Not only will this allow us to develop young players within our winning culture, but also will serve as an opportunity to expand our reach and connect with even more basketball fans across the region. This investment further strengthens our connection with the community and continues to elevate Phoenix as the epicenter of basketball.”

The new franchise will be located somewhere in the Phoenix area, sources tell Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic. During their four seasons in operation, the Northern Arizona Suns played in Prescott Valley, which is about 90 minutes away from Phoenix.

There are several criteria an NBA team has to meet to acquire a G League affiliate, Rankin adds, including having a lease agreement with an arena that complies with league standards. Those standards involve having enough locker rooms, approved ceiling clearance and available dates for 24 regular season home games. The G League doesn’t designate a minimum number of seats for its arenas.

Before they can begin their new franchise, the Suns will have to hire coaches, staff members, a team president and a general manager.

Without a direct affiliate, any Phoenix players who get sent to the G League are assigned to another team. That affects control of how the players are used and removes the potential benefit of developing them in a system that’s similar the one that the Suns operate.

Ishbia teased the announcement Monday during an appearance on the Burns and Gambo radio show, per Kellan Olson of Arizona Sports 98.7.

“We believe in developing young players,” Ishbia told the hosts. “… In the very near future, hopefully we’ll be able to announce a different strategy on that.”

Olson notes that the Suns have rarely sent their two-way players to the G League since selling the Northern Arizona franchise.

Suns Sign Bol Bol

July 18th, 2023 at 6:16pm CST by Luke Adams

JULY 18: The signing is official, according to the NBA transactions log.

JULY 16: The Suns have reached an agreement to sign free agent forward/center Bol Bol to a one-year contract, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link). According to Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link), Bol’s deal with Phoenix will be fully guaranteed.

The move had been expected since last weekend, when reports indicated that the Suns were the frontrunners to sign Bol. The 23-year-old was waived earlier this month by Orlando, as the Magic opted to move on from him before his salary for 2023/24 became guaranteed.

A second-round pick in 2019, Bol was limited to 53 games in Denver during his first three years in the NBA due to injuries, but enjoyed his best season in 2022/23 with the Magic. The 7’2″ big man stayed on the floor for 70 games and averaged 9.1 points, 5.8 rebounds, and 1.2 blocks in 21.5 minutes per night.

Given his modest $2.2MM salary and his unique skill set, it was a little surprising that the Magic decided to move on from Bol, but he struggled to consistently produce during the second half of last season. In his final 29 games, his playing time and shooting efficiency dropped off, as he scored double-digit points just three times and recorded averages of 5.1 PPG, 4.3 RPG, and 0.7 BPG on .447/.098/.806 shooting.

The Suns agreed to trade Cameron Payne to San Antonio in order to open up a roster spot for Bol, who will sign a minimum-salary contract. Once both moves are official, the club will be carrying 13 players on guaranteed contracts, plus Jordan Goodwin and Ish Wainright on non-guaranteed deals.

Bol figures to compete for minutes in a frontcourt that includes big men Deandre Ayton, Drew Eubanks, and Chimezie Metu.

Suns Notes: Roster, TPEs, Payne Trade Details, More

July 18th, 2023 at 8:13am CST by Luke Adams

Once the Suns officially sign Bol Bol, their 15-man roster should be set for the regular season, tweets John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports 98.7. Phoenix will have 13 players on guaranteed salaries, with Jordan Goodwin on a partially guaranteed contract and Ish Wainright on a non-guaranteed deal.

While the Suns could make additional moves with their two-way contract slots – Saben Lee is currently the team’s only two-way player – Gambadoro doesn’t anticipate any more changes to the standard roster before the season begins. As he observes, a pair of recent trades replenished the club’s supply of second-round picks, so those second-rounders and a pair of traded player exceptions could be used during the season in order to seek out further upgrades to the roster.

Phoenix’s $5MM trade exception from last season’s Dario Saric deal will expire in February. The new $6.5MM TPE created in the Cameron Payne deal technically won’t expire until next July, but the team will only be able to use it up until the 2024 trade deadline, notes ESPN’s Bobby Marks (Twitter link).

At the end of the 2023/24 regular season, more punitive restrictions for teams above the second tax apron will go into effect. One of those new rules will prohibit those teams from using trade exceptions.

Here’s more on the Suns:

Phoenix sent $5.7MM in cash to the Spurs in the Payne trade, according to Marks (Twitter link). Teams above the second tax apron also won’t be permitted to send out cash in trades after the ’23/24 regular season, so the Suns are taking advantage of the opportunity to do so while they still can.
The 2024 second-rounder that the Suns acquired in the Payne deal is San Antonio’s own pick, per Marks (Twitter link). However, the Spurs already traded that 2024 second-rounder with top-54 protection to the Celtics — they put top-49 (and 55-60) protection on it in the deal with Phoenix, so the Suns will receive it only if it lands between 50-54.
Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic shares five takeaways from the Las Vegas Summer League, while Gerald Bourguet of GoPHNX.com provides five takeaways from the club’s recent transactions.
The Suns are moving forward with their transition to Gray Television for game broadcasts after Diamond Sports Group declined to make a counter-offer. Rankin has the details in a story for The Arizona Republic.

Suns Trade Cameron Payne To Spurs

July 17th, 2023 at 5:03pm CST by Luke Adams

JULY 17: The trade is official, the Suns PR department tweets. The Spurs have also confirmed the deal, announcing in a press release that the pick they acquired from Phoenix is the Pelicans’ 2025 second-rounder. San Antonio surrendered a protected 2024 second-rounder in the swap.

JULY 16: The Suns have agreed to trade point guard Cameron Payne to the Spurs, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link), who reports that San Antonio will also acquire a second-round pick and cash in the deal.

Confirming Charania’s report, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link) says Phoenix will receive a future second-round pick in the swap. That selection will be protected, sources tell Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic (Twitter link).

Payne, whose name had popped up in trade rumors as of late, appeared in 48 games for the Suns last season, averaging 10.3 points, 4.5 assists, and 2.2 rebounds in 20.2 minutes per night, with a shooting line of .415/.368/.766.

Following Phoenix’s trade of Chris Paul earlier in the offseason, Payne had his $6.5MM salary for 2023/24 guaranteed and looked like he’d get a chance to vie for the final spot in the team’s starting lineup, alongside Devin Booker, Kevin Durant, Bradley Beal, and Deandre Ayton.

Instead, the Suns are offloading the veteran guard in order to open up a spot on the roster for Bol Bol, who has agreed to sign a one-year deal with the club. John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports 98.7 (Twitter link) suggests that Payne would’ve been behind Jordan Goodwin on the depth chart, so the team was comfortable moving him.

According to Yossi Gozlan of HoopsHype (via Twitter), the move from Payne to Bol will reduce Phoenix’s projected luxury tax penalty by approximately $18MM and will generate a $6.5MM trade exception for the team. ESPN’s Bobby Marks (Twitter link) estimates that the tax savings will be $26.4MM. Still, it’s a little odd to see the Suns essentially dumping Payne’s contract when it had only been partially guaranteed (for $2MM) until June 29.

The Spurs, who will absorb Payne’s $6.5MM salary into their cap room, will still have a little over $5MM in space available once the trade is official, tweets Gozlan.

It remains to be seen whether San Antonio envisions Payne opening the 2023/24 season with the team — once Tre Jones and Sandro Mamukelashvili officially sign their agreed-upon deals and the Spurs acquire Payne, they’ll have 18 players on standard contracts. They’ll have to reduce that number to 15 ahead of opening night in October.

Magic Trade Three Second-Rounders To Suns For 2026 Pick Swap

July 17th, 2023 at 1:05pm CST by Luke Adams

JULY 17: The draft-pick trade is now official, the Magic announced (via Twitter).

JULY 16: The Magic and Suns have agreed to a draft-pick trade that will send three second-rounders from Orlando to Phoenix in exchange for a 2026 first-round pick swap, reports ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link).

The Suns have already given the Wizards the right to swap first-round picks in 2026 as part of their Bradley Beal blockbuster, so the Magic will get the opportunity to swap their own 2026 first-rounder for the least favorable of Phoenix’s and Washington’s two picks. The Suns will end up with the worst of the three picks.

The three second-round picks headed to Phoenix in the trade are as follows, per Wojnarowski and ESPN’s Bobby Marks (Twitter link):

The Nuggets’ 2024 second-rounder.
The least favorable of the Magic’s, Pistons’, and Bucks’ 2026 second-rounders.
The Celtics’ 2028 second-rounder (top-45 protected).

It’s a fascinating deal, and the third one of its kind that we’ve seen made this offseason. The Suns and Grizzlies completed a similar trade involving three second-rounders and first-round pick swaps in 2024 and 2030. The Spurs gave up multiple second-rounders in a three-team deal with Dallas and Boston in order to gain the right to swap 2030 first-round picks with the Mavericks.

The Suns are essentially betting on their own continued success in order to replenish their collection of second-round picks, which was depleted in the Beal trade. As long as Phoenix is among the NBA’s best teams, those swaps should’t amount to much, in which case the Suns are essentially adding second-round picks for free.

The Magic, meanwhile, are betting on their own ascent, and gambling against the sustained success of the Suns and the retooling project in Washington. The hope in Orlando is that the Magic will have moved up far enough in the standings by 2026 that they’ll get to take advantage of their swap rights in order to move up at least a few spots in the first round of the draft.

Scotto’s Latest: Suns, Pacers, Knicks, Wright, Hornets, More

July 15th, 2023 at 2:32pm CST by Rory Maher

The Suns, Pacers and Knicks recently had exploratory trade talks on a deal that would have sent Cameron Payne to New York, T.J. McConnell to Phoenix, and Evan Fournier and draft picks to Indiana, league sources tell Michael Scotto of HoopsHype. Other iterations of the deal included Jordan Nwora, according to Scotto, though it’s unclear where the Pacers forward would have ended up in that framework.

However, the talks on the three-team trade have stalled, Scotto reports. Jake Fischer of Yahoo Sports was first to report the Suns and Pacers discussed a deal involving Payne and McConnell, and suggested the Knicks may have been involved as well.

Here’s more from Scotto’s latest article for HoopsHype:

League sources tell Scotto that the Hornets are on the hunt for a backup point guard after Dennis Smith Jr. signed with the Nets in free agency. As Scotto previously reported, Charlotte had interest in Aaron Holiday, but he wound up signing with the Rockets. According to Scotto, one player on Charlotte’s radar is Wizards guard Delon Wright, who will make $8.2MM next season in the final year of his contract. The Wizards traded for Tyus Jones and Jordan Poole, and Wright was signed by the previous front office regime. The 31-year-old has already seen his name pop up in a few other trade rumors this offseason.
Scotto recently spoke to a handful of second-round picks at Summer League about their goals entering their rookie seasons. Those players are Nuggets guard Jalen Pickett, Celtics forward Jordan Walsh, and Mouhamed Gueye and Seth Lundy of the Hawks. Walsh, the No. 38 pick of the 2023 draft, has high expectations for himself, he told Scotto. “If I get a chance to play with these guys and help the team, I want to be on the All-Defensive First or Second Team or Defensive Player of the Year,” Walsh said. “My goals are defensively oriented and winning a championship, which is No. 1. If I’m able to accomplish any of those things, I’d feel my rookie year went pretty well.”
In case you missed it, we passed along some Raptors rumors and free agent rumors from Scotto as well.

Pacific Notes: Vincent, Gordon, Vezenkov, Jackson-Davis

July 14th, 2023 at 9:28am CST by Luke Adams

Discussing his move from Miami to Los Angeles, Gabe Vincent said that he was “honored (the Lakers) reached out to me” when he became a free agent, as Khobi Price of The Southern California News Group (subscription required) writes.

After earning the minimum salary during his first four seasons in the NBA, Vincent received a considerable raise as a free agent this summer and will make $11MM annually on his new three-year deal with the Lakers. Despite the substantial pay bump, the 27-year-old is ready to accept whatever role the team he wants him to play, big or small.

“I’m just here to add on,” Vincent said. “They have a great core, a great situation, and hopefully I can just add to it and help us bring home a championship.”

Here’s more from around the Pacific:

After falling short of an NBA title during his time in Houston, Suns guard Eric Gordon is bullish about his chances of contending for a championship with his new team, per Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic. Gordon took a significant pay cut, agreeing to a minimum-salary deal with Phoenix. “I’m older in my career so I’ve played for a long time and money is not always such an issue,” Gordon said. “Of course, I want a lot more, don’t get me wrong. But at the end of the day, I want to do well here every year that I’m here and we’ll just see what happens down the line, but that’s why I want to come here, win a championship.”
Although Sasha Vezenkov has officially signed his contract with the Kings, who submitted it to the NBA’s league office, the forward is still awaiting a letter of clearance from FIBA in order for that contract to become legally binding, a source tells Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee. That’s expected to happen soon, at which point the Kings will officially announce the signing.
After missing the Warriors‘ first three Las Vegas Summer League games due to a right hamstring injury, second-round pick Trayce Jackson-Davis made his debut on Thursday, scoring 14 points and grabbing seven rebounds in 20 minutes. C.J. Holmes of The San Francisco Chronicle takes a look at what Golden State is getting in Jackson-Davis, a mature 23-year-old rookie who may nonetheless find minutes hard to come by in his first NBA season.

Suns Re-Sign Saben Lee To Two-Way Deal

July 13th, 2023 at 7:41pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

The Suns are bringing back point guard Saben Lee on another two-way deal, having officially signed him to a new contract, the team announced in a press release (Twitter link via Gerald Bourguet of PHNX Sports).

Lee inked his first two-way contract with Phoenix in January of this past season.

“Saben plays with toughness and aggression on both ends of the court,” team president James Jones is quoted as saying in the press statement. “His point guard instincts and ability to attack the rim are critical traits for us as we seek to build a better team.”

This move was not entirely unexpected, as the 6’2″ vet received a two-way qualifying offer from the Suns earlier this summer, effectively giving the club extra optionality to retain him as a restricted free agent.

Across 23 regular season contests with the Suns last year, the 24-year-old out of Vanderbilt averaged 6.3 PPG on .393/.379/.737 shooting splits, along with 2.8 APG, 2.0 RPG and 0.8 SPG. This will be the last season that he’s eligible to play on a two-way contract.

The Suns still have a pair of two-way slots available after re-signing Lee.