Phoenix Suns: 5 biggest disappointments from 2017-18 NBA season

5. The Payton rental

The Suns’ lone move at the 2018 NBA Trade Deadline — sending a second round draft pick to the Orlando Magic for Elfrid Payton — was seen as a no-risk, potentially high reward deal.

At the mere price of one of their three second-rounders in the upcoming draft, the Suns would at least be getting a two-month rental to take pressure off Devin Booker to do everything. At most, they’d be buying fiendishly low on a talented, young point guard who might have just needed a change of scenery after being a top-10 pick in 2014.

Unfortunately, Payton’s time in Phoenix was hardly memorable, even after he posted averages of 20.3 points, 8.7 assists and 8.3 rebounds per game — including one triple-double and one 29-point outing — through his first three appearances in a Suns jersey.

General manager Ryan McDonough should have zero regrets about taking this flier, but it became evident pretty quickly that Payton would hardly be a long-term fixture alongside Booker.

Defenses sagged off him because of his lack of a serviceable jump shot, and it didn’t take long before his effort cratered on both ends of the floor — much like the Suns’ defense did whenever he was on the court (116.0 defensive rating) compared to when he sat (108.1).

In his 19 games with Phoenix, Payton’s 11.8 points, 6.2 assists and 5.3 rebounds hardly told the whole story, but his .435/.200/.685 shooting splits and the fact that he missed the final seven games of the season due to injury certainly got a bit closer to doing so.

Payton played a grand total of 11 games alongside Booker, and with the 24-year-old heading for restricted free agency, the Suns are better off cutting their (minimal) losses here and looking elsewhere to address the point guard position.