The Suns almost traded for Jonathon Simmons…Should they pursue him in Free Agency?

The Phoenix Suns have all the cap room in the world (up to about $19M according to sportrac.com), and very few players and positions they should even consider spending it on. However, one player they would do well to look into is newly unrestricted free agent, Jonathon Simmons. And with the news that the Suns almost traded for him last night, comes even more reason to speculate whether the Suns are seriously interested or not.

The report that came out today was that the Spurs and Suns discussed a trade involving Simmons and Tyson Chandler. However, the Spurs balked at Chandler’s remaining contract. When the deal ultimately fell through, San Antonio renounced their rights to Simmons and let him become an unrestricted free agent.

It’s a shame this trade didn’t happen. While Tyson Chandler is a nice veteran player to have, his contract is still somewhat large, and he takes up playing time of the Suns’ numerous young bigs looking for minutes. Dumping his contract would have been a great move by Ryan McDonough, especially in return for an actual useful player to the team.

Despite the trade falling through, Phoenix still has the opportunity to pursue Simmons in free agency now. The question is, should they? There are arguments to be had for both sides. On the one hand, Jonathon Simmons would bring this team some much-needed perimeter defense. He would have a very similar effect as P.J. Tucker did for the Suns, but Simmons is a better shooter and athlete, though not quite as big or strong as Tucker was.

However, signing Simmons could also all but eliminate playing time for two young wings, Davon Reed and Derrick Jones Jr. Both players are inexperienced, but they are hungry, athletic, and perhaps most importantly, cheap. It’s not really known yet how much Simmons could command on the open market. While he certainly won’t get the $18 million a year that Kentavious Caldwell-Pope got, he could conceivably earn somewhere in the $5 to $10 million a year range.

That’s certainly not a lot, especially compared to most contracts in today’s NBA. But is it worth it to pay Simmons that money when the Suns have a chance to get similar production out of either Reed, Jones Jr., or some combination of both? It honestly depends on what the Suns’ goal is for this year. Tanking is most likely out of the equation, but just because the team isn’t trying to lose, doesn’t mean that they won’t still be a bad team.

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If they want to field a young team to start with, and let the young players grow more and play a lot of minutes, then obviously Simmons doesn’t make a lot of sense for the team. While 27 certainly isn’t old, it’s also not a rookie age. Simmons isn’t a core player for this team, and at this point in the Suns’ rebuild, the only veterans they should really be interested in are mentors who don’t need much playing time, or All-Star caliber players as part of their core. Jonathon Simmons doesn’t fit either of those criteria.

So while his defense and athleticism would be a nice plus to have on this team, he doesn’t make enough sense right now for the Suns to sign him to a contract. It better serves the organization for Davon Reed and Derrick Jones Jr. to fight for the backup SG role, as both players are young with just as much defensive upside as Simmons has.