5 reasons the Phoenix Suns were prudent in not re-signing Dario Saric

The early extension deadline for fourth-year player came and went and Phoenix Suns power forward Dario Saric was not among the plethora of signees from that group. But with an inconsistent first three seasons, James Jones made the right decision in not re-upping him right away.

Phoenix Suns General Manager James Jones made a huge splash on draft day when he traded away the 6th overall pick to the Minnesota Timberwolves, and moved back to 11 (where he selected Cameron Johnson) along with stretch-four Dario Saric.

Saric, then 24, is a sharp-shooter, as well as a hard-nosed defender.

Most importantly though, he is a starting-caliber power forward (having started 62.5% of games played in his career), filling one of the two biggest positions of need the franchise has lacked for the last two seasons – essentially since the trading away of Markieff Morris.

There is and should be a lot of excitement for Saric on the roster this season, especially if his 3-point shooting remains as deadly as it has been for the better part of the last two seasons (excluding his 13 games with the Philadelphia 76ers last year, Saric has shot 38.9% from beyond the arc on 652 attempts since the start of the 2017-18 season.

There is no doubt that if the Phoenix Suns’ offense is as open and movement-centric as it should  be based on the expectations of new Head Coach Monty Williams‘ offense, then not only will Saric continue to shoot 3’s at a high rate per game (potentially even setting a career-high in attempts), but he can evolve into the most lethal stretch-big the franchise has employed since Channing Frye.

This, however, is all hope and speculation.

Saric is only entering the fourth season of his career, and is now on his third team, for a reason.

Many fans and talking heads noted that the Minnesota Timberwolves were so willing to trade him this summer because they expected to have to pay him more than they could afford in his upcoming free agency, but again, this too is only speculation.

This all leads up to the early extension deadline that just passed on October 21, in which fourth-year players had the opportunity to be extended prior to restricted free agency in the summer of 2020.

A number of players were, but Dario Saric was not.

While it certainly would have been nice to have seen Saric extended adding another dimension of well-needed consistency to the roster, it was not all that necessary.

While fans have historically chastised owner Robert Sarver for his occasional bouts of cheapness (Joe Johnson is the first and most prominent player to come to mind), this is not necessarily one of those situations.

In fact, it was rather prudent for James Jones to not extend Sario Saric at this time.