Blake Griffin played the Suns, so what is next?

So Blake Griffin appears to have completely played the Suns, using Phoenix as a leverage point to force the Clippers to offer him a max, five-year deal (he was never coming to Phoenix) which he has received. So what is next for the Phoenix Suns?

For many fans in the Valley of the Suns, next is nothing. The Suns should do nothing. Let this roster grow out naturally, giving the core of young players the maximum amount of playing time possible, and tanking for another year.

By adding no veterans to the roster to play in front of Marquese Chriss, Dragan Bender, T.J. Warren, Josh Jackson, and Tyler Ulis, these players can receive all the playing time they need now to reach their prime as early as can be. Should a player like Griffin or Paul Millsap come in they would only suck up minutes, thus potentially stunting the young Suns’ growth.

This is a logical point of view, and one that is shared by the majority of fans – and possibly the current players as well.

The other argument is to go after the best possible free agents still available, ala Paul Millsap, and make a run at the playoffs. While Millsap is a 32-year-old veteran, he still has some run left in his legs and could be the catalyst the roster needs to get them into the eighth seed to show the younger players what winning is like. If nothing else, Booker and Chriss – legitimately potential stars – would get a taste for winning (and playoff losing) and want more, further driving them to succeed.

A player of Millsap’s age and stature, however, would force some significant moves to the roster and starting lineups that could cause management to make some tough decisions – trade players/picks they don’t want to trade (or receive less than they’d prefer); keep young players on the bench and prevent them from getting starters minutes; and possibly worst of all, clog the salary cap, blocking Phoenix from making the kinds of moves they want to make in the next year or two that could help them to grow the core of their roster.

In fact, when it comes down to it, aside from growing for the future, at this point it really is a lose/lose scenario for the Suns and their fans. Sign a big free agent and stunt growth while losing cap space. Don’t sign a big free agent and the team continues to struggle on the court with no guarantee that a draft pick next summer, or even the summer after, pans into the kinds of star everyone hopes it might be. Regardless, the team isn’t actually relevant in the NBA for several more years and fans remain restless and unhappy with extended losing.

In fact, at this point, the only positive that might truly come out of this free agency period is if the Suns manage to steal a young star in a trade without giving up the farm, although it appears that the only opportunity to do that died with the firing of Phil Jackson.

For all the hype, promise, and possibility that this free agency period appeared to actually have for Phoenix, it may have all fizzled out like a flat soda. The franchise will be forced to stay the course with the younger players. They may be able to make a trade of Brandon Knight, Tyson Chandler, and/or Jared Dudley for a first round pick to clear up cap space, but odds are that won’t happen until the trade deadline in February.

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Therefore, the roster we see now, is the roster we get next season. Granted, the young Suns should naturally improve, although it might not be enough to make any real noise in the West. Still, there is real excitement in watching this team with Josh Jackson now in the fold, and the possibility that Devin Booker can be a 25 point a game scorer this coming year. It will just all likely happen with a 50+ loss team, yet one that may be too good to fall out of the top three in the 2018 draft lottery once again.

We should all give Ryan McDonough and Robert Sarver immense credit for one thing though: while the Suns haven’t been able to finally cash in on and sign that big, splashy, free agent, just having the opportunity to converse about the possibility of one coming to the Valley of the Suns every offseason (LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, LaMarcus Aldridge, Blake Griffin) does add excitement to an otherwise bitterly hot summer. If nothing else, that in and of itself is pure genius.

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