Four veteran point guards John Gambadoro says the Phoenix Suns might target

Cory Joseph

Cory Joseph is easily my personal least favorite option of this group.

27-years-old, a career backup, Joseph would probably relish the opportunity to be a starter for even a short time and in terms of contract would cost the Suns very little.

An unrestricted free agent, Joseph has never made more than $7.9 million (which he made last year) and probably would only be offered a 2-3 year contract built on the presumption that Phoenix would take a point guard somewhere in the upcoming draft.

The problem with Joseph as a player is that he is not the kind of point guard Suns fans want.

I do not want to use his traditional stats as he has never been a starter and they look absolutely awful. But even his per-36min stats leave much to be desired.

Last season he averaged 9.4 points (while shooting 32.2% from 3) and 5.6 assists, both per-36. Unfortunately though his assist rate was his career-high while his scoring average was his second-lowest ever.

While the Suns do not necessarily need  a scoring point guard, adding one would be beneficial to the overall opportunities that one could provide, and that 3-point shooting rate should scare the team away.

Joseph is what he is: a career backup (the last two seasons with the Indiana Pacers) who if Phoenix signed as a starter, the team will not see the kind of improvement that we want to see.

In this case, Devin Booker would almost certainly be forced into a point role for the majority of the time, solving almost nothing, and if the drafted point guard does not develop, then the next few years will have been an entire waste of time.