Suns player cruelly not given fair chance last season must be brought back

The Phoenix Suns are going to go through some heavy roster changes this summer - most notably moving on from Kevin Durant - but it remains to be seen just how different their cap sheet situation is going to be. There's a reason beyond his no-trade clause that nobody will take Bradley Beal - he's owed $110 million across the next two seasons - while Devin Booker is about to get a bag.

Fans will have no problem at all with Booker tacking on another two years and $150 million to his current deal, the franchise would be directionless without him. But even when they move on from Durant, it is likely they'll get a player back in return who is also making a lot of money. After all, teams around the league are viewing Durant as a rental, and so won't give up much for his services.

Importance of bringing back this minimum player cannot be overstated.

Which means the organization will once again have to rely on minimum contracts to fill out the back end of their roster. To date they've had some success with this, and for every Drew Eubanks, there has been a Mason Plumlee. Bang for your buck who won't move the needle, but is a veteran who can play backup minutes behind a trio of stars.

Then there are the Bol Bol types - who has spent the last two seasons in Phoenix on a minimum - enigmatic and not always helpful, but capable of having fun regular season moments and getting the fans excited. If you're looking for a marriage of those qualities - helpful but also able to outplay their salary on certain nights - the Suns simply need to bring Monte Morris back next season.

Last year then head coach Mike Budenholzer rightly started - and then stuck with - Tyus Jones as the team's floor general. But when that started to go sideways, it never felt like Morris was given a fair shake to show what he could do. The only positive in this being his value certainly didn't increase, meaning another one-year deal in The Valley might also be the best course of action for him too.

Morris somehow averaged only 12.7 minutes per game across 45 appearances - zero of those being starts - which was the 15th most of any player on the roster. For context Collin Gillespie - who deserved all the run he got and then some - averaged 14 minutes in 33 games, with nine of those being starts.

Morris was lurking instead in Bol territory (12.4 minutes) - and even when Josh Okogie was traded to the Charlotte Hornets - his eventual replacement in Cody Martin stepped in and took all of his minutes. Like Jones, Morris is undersized for the position he plays, but he has a more stout body and has a great ability to limit mistakes out on the court.

Another reason to both look into bringing him back - and also even potentially giving him the starting job at least to begin the campaign next season - is that the Suns gave up nearly 10 points less (108.3) than their fourth-worst rating (117.7) across the whole regular season. There might actually be something to this number too, as Morris was often playing with second unit players.

Shooting 36 percent from deep was an added bonus (Morris has averaged a shade under 39 percent for his career), and you could even argue the career low 1.6 assists he managed was again because he wasn't playing and had no rhythm. Perhaps a reshaped roster will signal Beal's insertion back into the starting group. Even if that's the case, Morris looks to be the perfect backup.