NBA trade season is (unofficially) here.
Dec. 15 marks the date on the calendar when most contracts across the NBA landscape become trade eligible. Players signed in the offseason can now be included in trade packages, with rare exceptions like Golden State Warriors forward Jonathan Kuminga, who isn’t trade eligible until Jan. 15 but has been linked to the Phoenix Suns in rumors in the past.
The Athletic’s Zach Harper (subscription required) broke down that trade landscape for all 30 NBA teams, while hedging that he’s using “semi-educated guesses” for what he thinks should or will happen unless otherwise noted.
The Suns were included in his fourth tier, labeled “gaining assets.”
Harper echoed what we’ve been saying here as we look ahead to the NBA trade deadline.
He notes that the Suns have been “far better than anybody thought they’d be” to this point of the season, and that he doesn’t think the Suns will be buyers.
Provided most teams in a position to buy have more draft capital and assets than the Suns do, that logic checks out. The Suns have burned through a number of their draft picks in recent years to acquire Kevin Durant, Bradley Beal and, most recently, center Mark Williams.
From the outside looking in, it appears far more likely the Suns will engage in some salary cap tap-dancing to get under the luxury tax versus taking yet another big blockbuster swing.
Suns trade deadline outlook continues to take shape
We’ve argued an option that’s very much on the table for this year’s Suns squad is simply to stand pat. They can treat Jalen Green’s return from a hamstring injury as the in-season acquisition a team with playoff aspirations needs.
Harper echoed that sentiment, stating that Phoenix can simply re-evaluate their roster during the summer. That’s something they’ll need to do anyway with the aforementioned Williams (restricted) and Collin Gillespie (unrestricted) set to hit free agency at season’s end.
Harper also turned to the usual suspects: Royce O’Neale and Grayson Allen.
When Green eventually does return to the court, the Suns will have a glut of wing players. Depth is no doubt important, but it would be far from surprising to see one or both of those guys shipped away to acquire assets and/or cap flexibility for the Gillespie/Williams conundrum on the horizon.
Both Allen and O’Neale are impact role players who could help NBA contenders now and into the future. O’Neale is under contract through 2027-28 at a relatively affordable $10-$11 million per season, while Allen has a player option he could exercise ahead of that 2027-28 season.
The logical outlook in Phoenix is to free up cap room to sign Williams and possibly even Gillespie for the long term. The Suns will likely aim to get under the luxury tax threshold anyway, so moving Allen or O'Neale's contract for draft picks and/or expiring deals could be exactly where new GM Brian Gregory focuses his attention.
For now, though, the Suns will continue to battle for playoff position in the Western Conference.