When it comes to constructing a roster around a big three, beggars can’t be choosers.
With the acquisition of Bradley Beal from the Washington Wizards, the Phoenix Suns have $162.2 million in cap space tied to four players and no draft picks for the next seven years.
In a search for players to fill out the rest of the roster with major financial restrictions, the team is looking at former lottery picks in Jabari Parker and Stanley Johnson to supplement their stars.
Phoenix will bring the former No. 2 pick from 2014 and the No. 8 pick back in 2015, along with others, for a free agent workout on Wednesday, according to Bleacher Report’s Chris Haynes.
Haynes later reported that guard Chasson Randle, whom the team signed ahead of training camp back in 2021, will also be joining the workouts to help the team find cheap depth – a problem that they struggled with even before the Beal trade.
Parker averaged 14.1 points and 5.5 rebounds on nearly 50 percent shooting for his career, but the forward hasn’t averaged double figure scoring since the 2019-20 season and has bounced around the league until ultimately landing out of it after a two-year stint with the Celtics from 2020-22.
Johnson, on the other hand, has never averaged more than 8.7 points per game and is more of a defensive-minded player, his most recent NBA experience coming with the Spurs last year (a season in which he also spent time in the G League).
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While giving former lottery picks a chance to redeem themselves is certainly a charitable act, the Suns are doing this out of necessity rather than the kindness of their heart.
The combination of Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, DeAndre Ayton and Bradley Beal takes up 75 percent of the cap alone, the largest portion of a team’s salary allotted to four players in the league – with the only other fully guaranteed contract on the team being forward Isaiah Todd at less than one percent of the cap,
Finding serviceable players on cheap deals will certainly be a challenge for the Suns going forward.
Phoenix will almost exclusively look for players to sign at the veteran’s minimum, at around $2 million depending on the amount of years played in the league.
Outside of that, the only possible way the team would be able to find genuine starter and rotation level talent would be trading Ayton, their former No. 1 overall pick.
Ayton currently has three years left on his four-year, $133 million contact extension.
Trading the big man could potentially land Phoenix two starting level players.
