Whether or not Phoenix Suns fans realized it, a significant milestone occurred on Wednesday, and that was not just yet another routine win for the surprise team of the NBA.
Atlanta Hawks guard and four-time All-Star Trae Young was traded to the Washington Wizards for C.J. McCollum and Corey Kispert, akin to when Jackie Moon’s Flint Tropics acquired Ed Monix for a washing machine in Semi-Pro.
Young has major flaws that impact winning but he’s got undeniable star power, both in ability and name. And he went for just about nothing.
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Yet, not one time did it cross anyone’s mind to think of the Suns as a possibility, despite owner Mat Ishbia’s penchant for making the splashy move or an opening at point guard sitting there on the roster. It is evident how easily Phoenix could have had Young if it had felt inclined to entertain the idea.
That speaks to the progress that has been made over the last handful of months by the basketball operations staff, how Ishbia and general manager Brian Gregory have built a team their way and look committed to doing so in the right way. They have done a simply outstanding job in reshaping a roster with a few tweaks, all in the hands of a fantastic coaching effort from Jordan Ott that has maximized each player and delivered an identifiable style of basketball each night.
There is a time later in the season for major flowers to be delivered to all of them, especially from the highest of doubters like yours truly, to the point where it’s not totally unfair proposing various Michigan State paraphernalia to be donned.
For now, we are a month out from the trade deadline, and it’s a moment that could present further opportunity to the Suns.
Phoenix enters play on Thursday 22-15, clearly separating itself as one of the seven best and most reliable teams in the Western Conference this season.
While much more talented rosters are ahead of the Suns in the standings, it’s just about every week now where we’ve got a story coming out of Minnesota (24-13) or Los Angeles (23-12) about how the Timberwolves or Lakers are underachieving due to effort and a lack of connectivity. Denver (25-12) has a rash of injuries, and it feels like the Houston Rockets (22-12) should be better than they’re showing right now.
As bizarre as it is to say, considering where our expectations were just a few short months ago, it is reasonable to expect the Suns to at least be in the hunt for a top-six playoff spot. With that, is there work to be done at the deadline?
Well, it all comes back to that ol’ Bradley Beal fella. But let’s pause on that for the time being.
First and foremost, we don’t even know what this full Suns team looks like. Jalen Green has played five quarters and is approaching his return from a two-month absence within the next few games. As much as that can be painted as its own “trade deadline acquisition,” it’s more about a multi-week period giving us an idea of how all these pieces work together. Because the Suns actually have some interesting pieces to now work together!
Phoenix could also use some different pieces. It has some concrete weaknesses, namely with rebounding and size, that could get shored up for a relatively low price.
The question is whether the Suns are in a position financially to make that happen.
Phoenix is currently a smidge over the tax line, not to be confused with the oft-discussed first and second aprons we will get to here in a minute. In some shrewd maneuvering, the Suns entered the year just under it by the tiniest of fractions. What will have pushed it over the edge is guaranteeing Jordan Goodwin’s contract, a deal for the 14th guy that would have been easy to waive to duck back under before he became an integral part of the team.
Instead, the Suns will have to find another way not to be a tax-paying team. To be clear, the only reason to do so is money. It’s also a lot of money and was part of the motivation in exercising the waive-and-stretch clause on Beal’s contract.
If you “repeat” as a tax team for a certain number of qualifying years, you become a “tax repeater,” which multiplies the penalties. It essentially punishes organizations that routinely have a higher salary cap number. Doing so while you’re the fun and plucky “no one saw us coming!” team is unwise before contending aspirations or keeping a core together warrant paying the tax.
According to Spotrac, the Suns were taxpayers each of the last three seasons. A team becomes a “tax repeater” if it has been in the tax for at least three of the previous four seasons. So, if the Suns are in the tax either this season or next, they will have to pay the far-expanded repeater fees, and the 2025-26 season kicks off even harsher fees.
In order to pay the standard rate as a tax-paying team, a franchise must stay out of the tax for two of the previous four seasons. Meaning, the Suns can get back to those far-easier-to-stomach tax bills as soon as two seasons from now.
All this mumbo-jumbo adds up to the Suns being motivated to get under the tax this year. The easiest way to do so would be to dump a contract onto a team with cap space, like they could do with Nick Richards’ $5 million salary.
What Phoenix has to figure out, though, is if that is even worthwhile and if it foresees another year coming up when it can not pay the tax again.
The Suns have two key players in their future due for large raises this offseason: Mark Williams and Collin Gillespie.
Williams is making $6.2 million this year and is an upcoming restricted free agent. While the Suns will be able to control that process entirely, as other teams with previous RFAs have in the last handful of years, Williams is going to make at least double that next year. He has stayed healthy and overall played pretty darn good basketball.
Gillespie is on the minimum, $2.2 million, and is due for a significantly larger raise than Williams. One of the breakout players of the whole NBA season, Gillespie will qualify for an offer from the Suns that can get as high as the mid-teens. He has said he doesn’t want to go anywhere, even as an unrestricted free agent, so retaining him shouldn’t be challenging, either. It’s just going to cost a lot, as it should.
The salary cap will go up. So will those two figures, as do a few large contracts on the team like Devin Booker’s and Green’s — a few million apiece to boot.
So taking all of that into consideration, should the Suns just accept they are going to be tax repeaters for a while here? And more importantly, does that open the door for more aggression in the next few weeks and/or this summer?
A name that has recently come up in trade rumors that conveniently serves as a perfect thought exercise is Milwaukee Bucks big Bobby Portis.
Portis would add some much-needed shooting and scoring to the big man rotation, as well as a guy who has played as a “power forward” of sorts throughout his career, where he could add that aforementioned size and rebounding as a 4 at times. While that and his toughness are a direct match for how the Suns play, he’s also a unique piece that doesn’t fit everywhere, but that’s the luxury now of having a coach as good as Ott. He’d find a way to make Porits’ skillset work.
The holdup would be that Portis makes $13 million this year, $14 million next and has a $16 million player option for the 2027-28 season. If the Suns could find the right smaller trade package to work salary-wise, it would be another midlevel contract on the books.
Spotrac has Phoenix just $6.2 million from the first apron and $18.1 million beyond the second apron. Taking on that type of figure like Portis’, plus the bumps coming for Gillespie and Williams, would be getting awfully frisky with those god-forsaken things, which the Suns should want no part of in the next few years.
Perhaps you have a shared feeling that the math is not adding up. Surely when looking at the Suns’ roster, they shouldn’t be that close to the aprons as they are. Well, folks, that’s when we are reminded this is Year 1 of 5 with Beal’s $19.3 million cap hit of dead money on the books.
It is an impediment the Suns will have to continue to work around, and there was no way to expect they’d have to do so this soon. Let’s see how Lap 1 on the obstacle course goes.
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