The Phoenix Suns are fresh off a disastrous season. They missed the postseason entirely, despite a gigantic payroll. Phoenix fired their coach for the third straight year and must remake their roster. There is talk of trading Kevin Durant to avoid the second tax apron, but that alone won’t solve the Suns woes.
The franchise must find a coach who gets the team to buy in on defense. They need to get rid of Bradley Beal and reshape their roster around Devin Booker. It is a massive ask considering the Suns lack draft capital and desirable assets, which makes owner Mat Ishbia’s comments seem so much worse.
The new owner famously said “Ask the other 29 GMs— 26 of them would trade their whole team for our whole team and our draft picks and everything as is" in 2024. He was not worried about the trades for Durant and Beal costing them long-term. Things have certainly changed for the worse.
0 Teams would trade for the Suns roster now
The Suns have $161.5 million tied up in Durant, Beal, and Booker next season. The cap max is $154.6 million with the second apron at $207.8 million. With exclusively minimum contracts around their three stars, Phoenix would be pushing against the first apron.
Beal is under contract through 2027 on what is the worst contract in the NBA because of his no-trade clause. The Suns would have to give up significant draft capital to convince someone to take his contract. That deal still may not exist, and Phoenix cannot waive-and-stretch him without Beal giving back some money. The Suns are stuck with him, and it gets worse.
Phoenix mortgaged nearly all of their draft capital to land Durant and Beal. They have a first-round pick from 2025-2030, but many are encumbered by swaps. Most will land in the 20s and have limited value on the trade market. The Suns are not trading Beal for a star.
Even upgrading on the margins won’t be easy. It is why Durant is on the trade block. The Suns are not trading their role players for significant value. They want to keep their young talent to avoid facing a total rebuild in a few years. Their draft picks would have significant value, but the Suns traded them. Convincing any team to make a trade won’t be easy without KD or Booker leaving the Valley of the Sun.
Ryan Dunn and Oso Ighodaro are the Suns' young talent. Both have role-player potential but are far from stars. No team is signing up for an expensive and aging roster with limited young talent and undesirable draft capital. In one year, Mat Ishbia’s roster has become the least desirable in the NBA, and the owner deserves all the blame.
Mat Ishbia has zero interest in rebuilding, so it is difficult to see where the Suns go from here. They need to trade Durant for assets to improve their roster around Devin Booker. It will take multiple years before Phoenix is a serious contender again. Ishbia will try to speed up that process, which will likely have disastrous results too.
The Phoenix Suns' owner was less bold in his recent address. Hopefully, he learned several valuable lessons from his failure in roster building. No team is trading for the Suns’ future. Can Ishbia quickly change that? He will try, but things only get more difficult from here.