The Suns are believed to have maintained their interest in Pacers guard T.J. McConnell, Jake Fischer of Yahoo Sports said in the latest episode of the No Cap Room podcast (YouTube link).
Phoenix’s interest in McConnell was reported by multiple outlets earlier in the summer, but at that time, the team had no clear path to acquiring him due to his $8.7MM cap hit. Following their trade of Deandre Ayton and Toumani Camara for four players, the Suns have more potential pathways to acquiring McConnell, with either Nassir Little ($6.25MM) or Grayson Allen ($8.93MM) as a logical salary-matching piece.
While Fischer points out that the Suns are extremely short on point guard depth, he admits he’s not sure if the team will be eager to sacrifice its wing depth by moving a player like Little or Allen. Allen, in particular, had been on Phoenix’s radar for a while, as Fischer noted on Wednesday.
Here’s more on the Suns:
- During the same podcast, Fischer reiterated that Keon Johnson‘s days in Phoenix are likely numbered. “I don’t think they’ve officially waived Keon Johnson yet, but from my understanding, they plan to waive him,” Fischer said. The former first-round pick was sent from Portland to the Suns in Wednesday’s blockbuster deal.
- Suns owner Mat Ishbia was “very involved” in the trade that landed Allen, Little, Johnson, and Jusuf Nurkic in Phoenix, according to Sam Amick of The Athletic. As Amick explains, the Suns view the move as one that not only adds depth but gives them players who better fit around their stars. Nurkic was a longtime target for the club, which is “thrilled” to have landed him, Amick adds.
- While he’s not an All-Star like Damian Lillard and Jrue Holiday, Ayton is the only player in Wednesday’s blockbuster who is a former No. 1 overall pick, so his departure represents the end of an era, of sorts, in Phoenix. Doug Haller of The Athletic and Gerald Bourguet of GoPHNX.com take a look back at Ayton’s tenure with the franchise and, in Bourguet’s words, the “polarizing, complicated” legacy he’ll leave behind.
- John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports 98.7 has shot down a report claiming that the Suns had interest in acquiring Kyle Lowry from the Heat as part of a three-team trade if the Trail Blazers had decided to send Lillard to Miami. There’s “absolutely no truth” to that claim, according to Gambadoro (Twitter link), who says Phoenix was “totally focused” on Nurkic and the smaller pieces they could get with him.
McConnel makes sense for Phoenix as they have no true PG. Right now looking like Booker is going to assume that role.
But why would the Pacers send him out? He is the perfect backup for Haliburton.
Because ain’t going anywhere. But to your point they are letting him go for nothing. Definitely going to want at least 1 first from Phoenix
Why would they waive Keon Johnson now?
Cant they keep him for salary matching in a next trade? Or dumping his salary for cash + small draft asset to a team that wouldnt pay luxury tax for waiving him? Or a team that might just keep him for now.
They’ll have to do something soon. They have 17 players under contract.
Johnson’s salary can’t be aggregated for two months and the Suns will have to waive/trade two players before opening night to get down to 15 players, so he won’t be much use for salary-matching.
That said, there’s probably no rush for the Suns to cut him for a few more weeks unless they’re absolutely sure he won’t be on the roster and want to use his spot on someone else for camp.
Ah ok, important information about the aggregation.
His salary if guaranteed, so they should try to trade him without taking salary back. Given the luxury tax, they should be able to find a taker, no?
Or would they need to add too much assets to get rid of the contract?
They could probably move off of him for a second-round pick or even cash. But they’ve already used up their tradable cash and I imagine they’d like to save the few second-rounders they have for moves that actually upgrade the roster rather than moves that just save them some money.
My interpretation
Sounds like Ayton had a market of 1 and the impending Lillard trade would just be its (eventual) vessel to fold in the numbers easier
Can’t the Suns just re-sign Cameron Payne to add to their PG depth??
Edit: Nevermind, they cannot sign him until a calender year passes since they just traded him to the Spurs, who later released him
It is crazy though, a team that has Title aspirations doesn’t have a single legitimate PG on their team, unless you count Saben Lee as a PG.
Obviously, with the Suns having so many playmakers that are capable of handling the ball, them not having a true PG isn’t a huge deal, but it is still quite mind blowing.
They do have some excellent depth at the 2 though with Devin Booker, Grayson Allen, Bradley Beal, and Eric Gordon. Plus, then they will have the likes of Jordan Goodwin, Keon Johnson, Damian Lee, and Sabian Lee all fighting for one or two of their final roster spots.
In terms of their wings, they’ll have Kevin Durant, Nassir Little, Keita Bates-Diop, Yuta Watanabe, Josh Okogie, and Ish Wainwright
Then, for their bigs they’ll have: Jusuf Nurkic, Bol Bol, Udoka Azubuike, Drew Eubanks, and Chemizie Metu
That’s 19 players that the Suns have currently listed on their roster, so it’ll be interesting to see how it all plays out.
I have the funny feeling they aren’t quite done making some deals to fill in their depth at the back end of their roster.