Small Forward – Josh Hart
Another Knicks player? Is that really the direction the Suns want to be going in here? Josh Hart is a lot more than that however, and although he was a part of the Team USA roster that didn’t medal at the FIBA World Cup recently, he is a known quantity at this stage.
Hart will be 33-years-old by the time 2028-29 starts, and in all likelihood will be a free agent in the summer of 2028 as well. We’re taking a calculated guess here, but Hart does not look likely to win a championship while with the Knicks. That’s not a knock on that organization, it just speaks to the difficulty of actually winning.
We’ve watched this offseason as the likes of Eric Gordon and Yuta Watanabe took the veteran’s minimum in order to join a contender in the Suns. It would be similar with Hart, who will have made the bulk of his money, and who at that stage of his career will only be interested in winning a ring.
Steve Kerr officially moved Josh Hart into the starting lineup over Brandon Ingram earlier today pic.twitter.com/0FXzxaKUyI
— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) August 30, 2023
Hart would also be a better version of what Josh Okogie and Torrey Craig before him have been for this roster. A strong perimeter defender who will be tasked with shutting down high level scorers. He does this already, and as somebody who only entered the league in 2017 as a 22-year-old, should have the legs to still be a big time player in five years time.
The Suns in 2023-24 are imbalanced because of the sheer amount of star power they possess. But once Durant retires, that will all change. It will be about building a more balanced roster around the top five talents of Booker, and Hart certainly falls under that category at a cost that will not break the bank.