Phoenix Suns: Contract-expiring players the team should bring back

Dario Saric

The Phoenix Suns traded the 6th overall pick in the 2019 NBA draft to fall down to the 11th pick (with which they reached for Cameron Johnson) and acquire Dario Saric’s expiring contract.

Dario is a restricted free agent, so the Suns could give him a qualifying offer of $4.7 million unless another team outbids that.

Dario presents quite the conundrum. If the Suns let him walk for nothing, then they essentially just gifted the Minnesota Timberwolves the 6th overall pick for pretty much nothing, considering even Jones wouldn’t have thought Saric was the missing piece to vault the Suns into the playoffs this season.

However, even though he started 50 out of the 58 games in which he played, he didn’t finish hardly any of them. Monty Williams much preferred the Rubio-Booker-Oubre-BRIDGES-Ayton lineup to close out a game, rather than include Dario.

Does that mean Williams isn’t a fan of Super Dario? Probably not. But it does beg the question if he sees him as a longterm solution for the 4-spot.

Saric does some good thing and $4.7 million is probably around his market value. However, the Suns should aim higher at the starting 4-guard spot with their free-agency money and splurge on someone with a higher ceiling (again, looking at you, Gallinari).

As much as it may sting giving having made the trade for him in hindsight, it may be best to let Super Dario seek mushrooms and stars elsewhere.