The Phoenix Suns had a busy offseason, trading and waiving stars and rebuilding a roster that was on life support. In the process, they found a draft day gem but completely whiffed on a franchise-saving trade.
Looking at a team's offseason requires multiple perspectives. It is easy to get caught up in the moves that they made -- and the Phoenix Suns made many. They traded Kevin Durant away, extended Devin Booker, added a pair of hulking former Duke centers in Mark Williams and Khaman Maluach, swapped out second-round picks like they were playing a game of Pit and waived-and-stretched the albatross contract of Bradley Beal.
Such a view is incomplete, however, if you do not also consider the roads not traveled. Trading Durant for one package is good; was there another package they could have taken? Should they have sold high on Devin Booker instead of trying to retool awkwardly around him? These are questions with unclear answers.
Sift through it all, however, and you can find the best move that they did make -- and the best one they let slip by. This is not the most impactful moves, as the names Durant and Beal and Booker would have to come up. But this is individually the best value the Suns got with a single move, and the most value they passed up by not making a move.
Let's look more closely at the best move the Suns did and didn't make this summer.
Best Move: Drafting Koby Brea
Ultimately, trading for Jalen Green, drafting Khaman Maluach or extending Devin Booker will each have a larger impact on the franchise than a second-round pick, but the best move that Brian Gregory executed this summer was drafting Koby Brea.
The NBA is built on shooting, and Brea looks like an absolute sniper. He led the entire nation in 3-point shooting not once, but twice in each of the last two seasons, shooting an unbelievable 49.8 percent wih Dayton and last year hitting 43.5 percent against much stiffer competition for the Kentucky Wildcats.
That translated to Summer League after the Suns traded up to draft Brea with the 41st pick in this year's draft. He dropped in 42.9 percent of his 3-pointers in three Summer League appearances, showing his precise and repeatable form as a shooter. For him to maximize his NBA impact, he needs to be an elite off-ball mover to relocate and find their way into open shots -- and he nailed that role in Las Vegas.
The Suns need to find a way to move on from Grayson Allen, and now they have a ready-made replacement. Brea has size at 6'6" and will be one of the league's best shooters over the next decade. The Suns stole him at No. 41.
Move They Missed: Trading with the Pelicans
The most important piece of the Kevin Durant trade was getting back their own No. 10 pick in this year's draft, a pick they used on South Sudanese center Khaman Maluach. They are optimistic that he will develop into a difference-making rim protector with real offensive skill.
Even if he does realize that upside -- and it's a major if, as Maluach looked extremely up-and-down in Las Vegas -- there was a better move on the table. Not merely drafting a different player, but taking the New Orleans Pelicans' trade offer they were shopping to teams in the mid-to-late lottery.
By moving down from the No. 10 pick to No. 23, they could have picked up a truly lucrative future pick: the better of the Milwaukee Bucks and Pelicans' first-round pick in 2026, entirely unprotected. Presumably the Suns were offered that package and turned it down to draft their guy in Maluach -- and if so, that was a mistake.
The Pelicans were desperate to move up and draft Maryland center Derik Queen, and they reportedly offered multiple teams the package that the Atlanta Hawks ended up taking. New Orleans moved up to No. 13 and took Queen, and the Hawks moved down, drafted versatile big Asa Newell out of Georgia and picked up the single best draft pick to have been traded in years.
The Pelicans may be the worst team in the Western Conference next season, and if not they will most likely be in the bottom-5 in the league. That could very easily yield a Top-5 pick -- or even the No. 1 pick. To make matters worse, the Milwaukee Bucks are a team built around one star, and if Giannis Antetokounmpo misses time they could spiral. The pick has fantastic upside.
It likely also could have belonged to the Suns. That sort of gem is how you restart a team's future. Instead, the Suns drafted a decent center prospect and waved goodbye to a remarkably valuable asset. It was the best move they could have made, but didn't.