Phoenix Suns: 3 takeaways from 2019 NBA offseason

1. Asset management is worrisome

The Phoenix Suns may have a better-constructed roster for the upcoming season, but the way they got there was negligent at best and stumbling into progress at worst. The end result was fine, but the means to getting there represented a troubling, reoccurring pattern that’s worth monitoring moving forward.

A full-scale roster blowout is defensible; James Jones is the new GM and it’s not like many of the pieces on this roster were contributing to winning basketball. Jackson was far closer to draft bust territory than living up to his status as a fourth overall pick, and even with his miraculously revamped 3-point, Warren was often too injured and too poor of a fit to really help Phoenix.

With that being said, Jones displayed an alarming lack of awareness when it comes to the proper value of players and draft picks this summer. It’s fine that he wanted to clear cap space to sign Ricky Rubio and bring back Kelly Oubre Jr., and it’s fine that he went into the offseason targeting smart, mature players who could shoot. But the asset management was extremely poor.

It started with dumping a decent rotation player in T.J. Warren to the Indiana Pacers for absolutely nothing but cap space and cash considerations. Even worse, Phoenix included the No. 32 overall pick in that deal, which Indiana reportedly thought was a joke at first.

Then, the team traded down from No. 6 to No. 11 with Jarrett Culver — a popular Suns draft target for his defense, playmaking and all-around smooth skill-set — still on the board. That’s fine in a vacuum, especially if the team had taken Brandon Clarke — another popular Suns draft target for his defense, shot-blocking and impressive advanced metrics — after trading down.

Instead, the team made the biggest reach of the entire draft by taking Cameron Johnson about 10 spots earlier than he was projected to go.

This won’t matter 10 years from now if Johnson turns out to be good since draft projections are often later revealed to be inaccurate, but it says something that even his own UNC teammate, Coby White, was shocked he went that high:

So at the cost of Culver or Clarke, the Suns plugged up their starting power forward spot with Dario Saric (who could be a one-year rental) and a one-dimensional sharpshooter who was one of the oldest players in the draft. To compound this lack of asset management, Jones pulled off his trifecta of draft-night moves by dealing the Suns’ 2020 Milwaukee Bucks first-rounder to the Boston Celtics for Aron Baynes and the No. 24 pick, Ty Jerome.

Baynes is a quality backup and Jerome is supposedly NBA-ready, but giving up a pick that’s only top-seven protected to trade back into a weak draft felt like an odd maneuver. Yes, the Bucks are probably going to be great again next year, thereby diminishing the value of that pick, but they’re also one Giannis Antetokounmpo injury away from it being more valuable. You just never know.

Pick projections aside, between the $7 million owed to Baynes and Saric, the Suns immediately plugged up most of the cap space freed up in the T.J. Warren salary dump.

The overall picture on draft night wasn’t pretty, but it was about to get even uglier. Overpaying for a quality point guard like Rubio wasn’t an issue in and of itself; Phoenix was always going to have to overpay to get real players to join its ranks, and Rubio was one of the best, most realistic options available to fill a longstanding hole at the 1-spot.

However, between Rubio’s three-year, $51 million deal and keeping Oubre’s cap hold in order to re-sign him, additional space needed to be cleared from the Suns’ cap sheet. Remember that $7 million Phoenix added back to the books on draft night with Saric and Baynes? That’s pretty much exactly how much the team had to unload with the Josh Jackson salary dump.

Again, getting rid of the No. 4 overall pick from 2017 wasn’t a mistake in and of itself; the embarrassment of that move lies with McDonough, the GM who originally drafted a disappointing wing who struggled with decision-making both on and off the court to the point his trade value cratered.

However, it’s hard to believe the Suns couldn’t have found a better deal before being forced to include a useful defender like De’Anthony Melton and two future second round picks — especially since we now know the Pacers thought Warren trade was a joke. At the end of the day, Jones and the Suns just didn’t realize the value of an asset like Melton, and got duped into including him and two second-rounders just to get rid of a recent top-five pick.

Suns fans can defend each and every move the team made this summer until they’re blue in the face, but doesn’t it kind of matter that each and every trade Phoenix was involved in seemed to be a resounding win for the other side?

Of course, this is without even mentioning giving Frank Kaminsky the room exception for two years when literally no one else was going to pay that price.

The Phoenix Suns have put themselves in position to improve in 2019-20 — a necessity for the franchise in order to keep Devin Booker happy. However, from their salary dumps to their draft-night trades to the way they acquired these useful players, it’s hard to be optimistic about this organization’s ability to properly evaluate its assets.

That’s less of an issue now for a team that needs to finally crack the 30-win barrier and start getting this rebuild off the ground, but don’t be surprised if this flaw becomes a glaring issue down the road when it’s actually time to assemble a contending roster around Booker and Ayton.