SUMMARY
- The Phoenix Suns are expected to make changes to their roster this offseason.
- The Suns may have to choose between trading away Devin Booker or Kevin Durant.
The Phoenix Suns have been the center of attention across the basketball community. After all, they are the first team to get eliminated from the playoffs. To those who might not be aware, the Suns were swept by Anthony Edwards and the Minnesota Timberwolves and have already begun their long offseason.
Given that the team began this season with legitimate title aspirations, there is no denying that this year’s outcome fell well below expectations. Now, the Phoenix Suns have to address serious concerns and make tough decisions in order to turn things around in the near future.
The Phoenix Suns have no clear path to trade Bradley Beal
When the Suns traded away Chris Paul and brought Bradley Beal onto their roster from the Washington Wizards, NBA experts had conflicting opinions on this move. While Beal is younger than CP3 and a much better scorer, the team had no official point guard who could bear the responsibility of facilitating. The role of point guard appeared to be shared by Devin Booker and Bradley Beal this season.
That clearly did not work out too well for the team. Since Beal was injured for long stretches of this season and did not play as well as expected in the playoffs, one might assume that the Suns would find a trade for him. However, his large contract alongside his diminishing value at the moment means that Phoenix simply would not get much in return for Beal.
The Suns mortgaged away their entire future, and it resulted in a first round sweep.
Phoenix not only has zero control over their first-round picks from 2025-2030, but Bradley Beal also refused to waive his no-trade clause when he arrived in June.
Beal, who is owed $160 million… pic.twitter.com/Gg5IWghLg4
— Evan Sidery (@esidery) April 29, 2024
Therefore, the Suns are essentially stuck with their current roster and can make no significant changes. It already appears as if Phoenix is going to make a change in coaching. However, that might not be enough to drastically improve their situation. It looks like the Suns may have to make a choice on trading away Devin Booker or Kevin Durant to gain other assets that could help them take a leap forward next season.
Which of the Suns’ big 3 should be traded away?
Since trading Beal is expected to be a loss for the Suns, their only path forward would be to make Devin Booker or Kevin Durant available for trade this offseason and find a package of equal value for one of those stars. After all, both Booker and KD played quite well in the final game of their season and still hold a significant amount of value when compared to Beal.