5 teams that should have regrets about the 2019 offseason
By Greg Steele
2. Phoenix Suns
Perhaps the most head-scratching offseason of all came from the Phoenix Suns. While their performance was quite as bad as the No. 1 team on the list, that team at least seemed to have some sort of plan guiding their misguided transactions. The Suns, by contrast, made a hodgepodge of roster moves without any discernible logical consistency.
A team with no possibility of winning in the immediate future should be accumulating assets, but the Suns literally gave away a 26-year-old starter on a team-friendly contract for three seasons for nothing. Why was Phoenix so anxious to get rid of T.J. Warren, who has notched 2.2 wins per season in the past four years (including 1.3 wins last season in only 1,360 minutes)?
Why, to make space for Kelly Oubre Jr.’s cap hold, of course. Why would a team with so little talent need to clear space, though? Obviously, they had to sign Ricky Rubio to a three-year, $51 million contract.
The decisions have some merit in isolation — Oubre is a promising prospect, and Rubio is a very effective defender and distributor who should fit nicely beside Devin Booker — but do not fit together into the outline of a competitive team.
In yet another salary-dumping move, Phoenix traded former No. 4 overall pick Josh Jackson, along with promising 21-year-old guard De’Anthony Melton, to Memphis in order to move on from Jackson.
In truly inexplicable fashion, the Suns attached an asset (Melton) in a trade in order to clear Jackson’s salary from the books instead of simply waiving Jackson (whose game was not amenable to the Suns’ existing core, it must be admitted).
The Suns spent plenty of money on other players that do not fit the timeline of their cornerstones — Devin Booker and Deandre Ayton. Phoenix traded a future first-round pick for 32-year-old center Aron Baynes, signed Frank Kaminsky to a two-year contract and traded down in the draft in order to acquire Dario Saric … whose contract expires after this season.
Even if we grant Phoenix some leniency in having identified their desperate need for a point guard and acting to redress that need, it is mind-boggling to comprehend why a team that selected Deandre Ayton No. 1 overall in the 2018 draft would spend their summer acquiring slow-footed big men who are mediocre outside shooters.
Not only do they occupy valuable space in the lane, but they provide the worst fit imaginable beside Ayton.