Is one Phoenix Suns FA big board prediction too stale?

Zach Buckley of Bleacher Report designed a free agency big board for every team in the NBA. But does his evaluation of the Phoenix Suns leave much to be desired?

Short both a starting power forward and point guard, Phoenix Suns General Manager James Jones has a lot of work to do this offseason to create a competitive team this coming season, and free agency is likely to play a major part in how Jones redesigns the roster.

While fans of every team want their franchises to drop their lines into the deepest waters possible and pull out a superstar big fish (if you asked a Golden State Warriors fan even they’d  wish to both re-sign Kevin Durant and  add Kawhi Leonard), not every team can for any number of reasons, most importantly the cost.

Some players too appear to have zero interest in signing in certain markets, including Phoenix where former GM Ryan McDonough once famously (although never actually confirmed) offered both LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony max contracts in the same offseason to allow the two to team up in the Valley of the Suns – to no avail.

Phoenix Suns

That is why when reading Zach Buckley of Bleacher Report’s top-three big board for the Phoenix Suns, fans can’t help but feel a little…underwhelmed.

In short, Buckley listed D’Angelo Russell, Kelly Oubre, and Terry Rozier.

(Insert sad trombone playing sound clip here)

Here is why this lit is so, eh, in my opinion: it’s basic. It’s simple. There’s no reaching there. There isn’t a name on that list for fans to raise their eyebrow and think “do the Suns really have a chance at acquiring him??”

Where is the imagination? The outside-the-box thinking? The surprise prediction?

Is it too much to ask for someone nationally to actually stake their reputation by stating that Kevin Durant is not only at the top of the Phoenix Suns’ Free Agency Big Board but that he should  sign here?

How about the idea of he and Kyrie Irving teaming up with Devin Booker and Deandre Ayton and comprising a super-four  core? Kyrie is a free agent as well and if those two reached out to Jones and Robert Sarver and said “hey, make this happen,” it would.

Granted, I want D’Angelo Russell on the Phoenix Suns opening night next year.  And I too believe that Kelly Oubre needs to e re-signed. Many fans also agree with Zach that Terry Rozier should be a target of James Jones this offseason as well (although for the life of me, I do not know why).

So at least from my perspective, two of those three players would be great on the roster next season, one of whom was already here last year.

Which in all sincerity is actually a sign that Buckley nailed  this list (again, at least with the first two).

If the Phoenix Suns kept Oubre and added Russell, with the presumption that at least a competent power forward was acquired, new Head Coach Monty Williams might have this team humming and well on it’s way to the playoffs by Christmas.

Again, while I am personally not a fan of Rozier at all (he is no Kevin Johnson who needed to get out of a star point guard’s shadow before blooming himself into a star, Rozier is a career backup in the Association), Zach Buckley very astutely placed Russell and Oubre at the top of the Suns’ Big Board because those are the two best players who would arguably agree to sign here – Russell because of his close relationship with Devin Booker and Oubre because he has already assimilated himself to the culture of the locker room very well.

While fans of the Phoenix Suns might wish for the franchise to be a hot free agency destination as it once was, there is no reason for superstar players to sign here until Robert Sarver finally shows the world that he can actually lead an NBA franchise – by getting out of the way.

If James Jones is able to sign Russell (be it via restricted free agency or through the unrestricted process should Kyrie and another big fish sign in Brooklyn forcing Nets management to relinquish their rights to their current starter) and retain Oubre, hope will once again spring eternal in the Valley of the Suns, and the idea of the franchise making the playoffs will feel a lot less of a dream, and finally become much more of a reality.