{"id":117940,"date":"2025-06-23T05:42:09","date_gmt":"2025-06-23T05:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/117940\/"},"modified":"2025-06-23T05:42:09","modified_gmt":"2025-06-23T05:42:09","slug":"suns-notes-beal-green-wild-card-suitors-lanier-durant-cousins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/117940\/","title":{"rendered":"Suns Notes: Beal, Green, Wild-Card Suitors, Lanier, Durant, Cousins"},"content":{"rendered":"

With the Suns agreeing<\/a> to trade Kevin Durant<\/a> to the Rockets, Phoenix radio talk show host John Gambadoro continues to believe the team will either trade or buy out Bradley Beal<\/a>, he said on The Kevin O\u2019Connor Show (Twitter video link<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Of course, Beal has a no-trade clause and would have to agree to waive it for a deal to be made. If the Suns are unable to trade or buy out Beal, then they\u2019d have to hope he could rebuild his value on the court. Gambadoro previously noted<\/a> that head coaching candidates were asked how they would utilize Beal if he\u2019s still on the roster.<\/p>\n

Cap expert Yossi Gozlan (Twitter link<\/a>) looks back at the buyouts of Kemba Walker<\/a> and Blake Griffin<\/a> in recent seasons as examples of what Beal might be willing to give back, presuming the three-time All-Star could receive a full non-taxpayer mid-level exception deal elsewhere. If Beal were willing to give up 25 percent of his current contract with two years left, the cap hits for the Suns would total $40.25MM and $42.85MM.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s more on the Rockets:<\/p>\n

While the Suns now seemingly have two combo guards with similar skills, they are not planning to move Jalen Green<\/a>, Gambadoro tweets<\/a>. Instead, the Suns will look to pair him with Devin Booker<\/a> in the backcourt and see how they\u2019ll mesh. Green has shown durability, appearing in every game over the past two seasons. He averaged 21.0 points and 3.4 assists this season.
\nWhile Durant negotiations were primarily focused on the Heat, Rockets and Timberwolves, several wild-card suitors emerged, including the Raptors, Cavaliers, Nuggets and Clippers, according to ESPN\u2019s Shams Charania<\/a>. The Cavs, in particular, were a long shot since they would have needed to send out enough salary to get under the second apron for 2025\/26. Otherwise, they wouldn\u2019t have been allowed to aggregate salaries. Since the Suns are also a second-apron team, a deal between Phoenix and Cleveland would have required the involvement of at least one more club.
\nTennessee guard Chaz Lanier<\/a> worked out for the Suns on Friday, Duane Rankin of the Arizona Republic tweets<\/a>. Lanier set the Volunteers\u2019 single season record for made three-pointers with 123 this past season. He\u2019s ranked No. 38 overall on ESPN\u2019s Best Available list. The Suns own the 29th and 52nd picks in addition to the 10th and 59th selections they\u2019re acquiring from Houston.
\nEarlier in the weekend, Durant brushed off a comment by former NBA center DeMarcus Cousins<\/a>, who claimed on Fan Duel\u2019s Run It Back show that there were \u201cfistfights\u201d in the Suns locker room. As Rankin relays<\/a>, Durant responded on social media that Cousins\u2019 source for that claim was \u201clying\u201d and that there were \u201cNEVER\u201d any locker room fights.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With the Suns agreeing to trade Kevin Durant to the Rockets, Phoenix radio talk show host John Gambadoro…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":117941,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3724],"tags":[7,3086,3523,2292,861,938],"class_list":{"0":"post-117940","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-bradley-beal","10":"tag-chaz-lanier","11":"tag-devin-booker","12":"tag-jalen-green","13":"tag-kevin-durant"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114731086493757842","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117940"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117940\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/117941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}