1. Thaddeus Young
Why is it that the idea of Thaddeus Young on a team has more often than not been better than the reality? The forward has been around since 2007, and has played for seven NBA franchises. When he was included in deals in the past, it always felt like the team that managed to get him was adding a guy who could help on both ends of the court.
Which Young is capable of doing, just not to the degree that many seem to think that he can. In defence of Young, he has spent the last five years playing for the Chicago Bulls, San Antonio Spurs and Toronto Raptors. Perhaps not the best place to showcase his talents given that all three of these teams were either middling or rebuilding outfits when he played for them.
Young was a Sixth Man of the Year candidate with the Bulls back in 2020, and has started only 16 games total across two other teams since then. So there may still be some juice left in those legs, while like Lopez and Gallinari he too is 35 having entered the league as a teenager with the Philadelphia 76ers.
We've already mentioned how the buyout market is overemphasized, but the addition of Young to this Suns group would feel a bit meh. They are clearly a level or two below the true contenders right now, and Young is a safer kind of swing than the organization should be looking to make at this point in their season. Young will land somewhere, but it shouldn't be The Valley, not at this point.