![]() If the Suns can trade him to a team that can absorb his salary into their cap space, the Suns don’t have to match salaries and can save money, get below the tax line and gain flexibility. A team trying to trim salary from its books could trade for and then waive him and save considerable cash. (What the Suns can’t do is trade first-round picks, they sent all those to Brooklyn.)Ī CP3 trade would likely happen around the draft, because while he has two years and $60 million on the books, only $15.8 million of it is guaranteed (all of that this season, none the season after) with a June 28 guarantee date. That has other teams expecting the Suns to “aggressively” try and trade Ayton and Paul this summer, something ESPN’s Tim MacMahon talked about on the Hoop Collective podcast. They are pushing up against the new second apron of the tax - $17.5 million over the tax line - which would eliminate their use of the mid-level exception and put other strict limits on team building (such as not being able to take back more money than they send out in a deal, no use of the buyout market and more). With three max contracts on the books - Booker, Durant, center Deandre Ayton - plus Chris Paul at a near-max $30 million and Landry Shammet at $10.3 million, the Suns are already deep into the luxury tax with six players on the books next season. This offseason, GM James Jones needs to replace that depth - right now, it’s not even clear who the fifth starter on the team should be.Īdding that depth is where it gets complex. The Suns sent Mikal Bridges, Cam Johnson, Jae Crowder and four first-round picks (plus a pick swap) to Brooklyn to get Durant. ![]() The Suns may have had two of the three best players in their playoff series, but they didn’t have close to the best team, which is why Denver advanced. ![]() However, the massive holes and depth issues in the Suns’ roster - gaps created by the trade to get Durant - were evident in Games 1,2, 5 and 6. Then in Game 4 they combined for 72 points in another Phoenix victory. Just how much a force they can be together showed in Game 3 of their second-round series against the Nuggets when the duo combined for 86 points in a Suns win. In a bold mid-season trade to create a true superstar pairing, the Suns made their move for Kevin Durant - who had his eye on Phoenix for a while - and paired him with Devin Booker.
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