{"id":119504,"date":"2025-06-23T22:39:09","date_gmt":"2025-06-23T22:39:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/119504\/"},"modified":"2025-06-23T22:39:09","modified_gmt":"2025-06-23T22:39:09","slug":"suns-notes-frontcourt-allen-oneale-micic-martin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/119504\/","title":{"rendered":"Suns Notes: Frontcourt, Allen, O’Neale, Micic, Martin"},"content":{"rendered":"

Expect the Suns to focus on adding frontcourt help in the draft and during free agency, according to John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports 98.7 (Twitter link<\/a>), who points out that the team could really use a power forward after agreeing to trade Kevin Durant<\/a> to Houston and also needs either a starting or backup center.<\/p>\n

As a result of adding Jalen Green<\/a> and Dillon Brooks<\/a> in the Durant deal, Phoenix\u2019s roster is heavy on wings, with Green now part of a group of shooting guards that includes Devin Booker<\/a>, Bradley Beal<\/a>, and Grayson Allen<\/a>, while Brooks joins Royce O\u2019Neale<\/a> and Ryan Dunn<\/a> at small forward. Cody Martin<\/a>, who has a non-guaranteed $8.7MM salary for next season, could also be part of that mix if the Suns decide to hang onto him.<\/p>\n

The Suns have gauged the trade market for Allen and O\u2019Neale, Michael Scotto of HoopsHype<\/a> reports, so moving one of them could help clear the logjam on the wing.<\/p>\n

Up front, meanwhile, Phoenix likes both Nick Richards<\/a> and Oso Ighodaro<\/a>, according to Gerald Bourguet of PHNX Sports<\/a>, and the expectation is that Richards will have his $5MM salary guaranteed, per Scotto. However, Richards probably fits better as a backup than a full-time starter, while Ighodaro is entering his age-23 season and still needs time to develop.<\/p>\n

Unless they\u2019re able to shed significant salary, the Suns will only be able to offer minimum-salary contracts to free agents, but they now control four draft picks<\/a> this week, including Nos. 10 and 29 in round one.<\/p>\n

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

Within a story<\/a> that extensively breaks down the Durant trade and its impact on the rest of the Suns\u2019 roster, Bourguet says he expects the team to decline Vasilije Micic<\/a>\u2018s $8.1MM team option and suggests Martin could be an odd man out as well for cap\/tax reasons, though the club does like him.\u00a0Scotto confirms<\/a> that Phoenix will likely turn down Micic\u2019s option and waive Martin unless one of their salaries is needed for a trade.
\nIn that same PHNX Sports story, Bourguet notes that Brooks will bring some \u201cswagger\u201d to the roster that the Suns have lacked since Jae Crowder<\/a> and Chris Paul<\/a> departed, confirms that the plan is to hang onto Green rather than flipping him to another team, and briefly explores what the front office will do with Beal, since finding a trade for him feels unlikely.
\nThe Suns had won between 45 and 64 games in the four seasons prior to 2024\/25, but the Durant trade feels like it could be the beginning of a difficult stretch for the franchise, writes Doug Haller of The Athletic<\/a>.
\nEric Koreen and James Jackson of The Athletic<\/a> teamed up to discuss what the Durant trade means for Phoenix going forward, with Jackson expressing surprise that the Suns weren\u2019t able to extract either more young talent beyond Green or additional draft assets besides this year\u2019s No. 10 overall pick.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Expect the Suns to focus on adding frontcourt help in the draft and during free agency, according to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":119505,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3791],"tags":[7,3086,14224,1195,7781,861,6,7797,11328,2065,472,4045,7780,604,10757],"class_list":{"0":"post-119504","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-phoenix-suns","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-bradley-beal","10":"tag-cody-martin","11":"tag-dillon-brooks","12":"tag-grayson-allen","13":"tag-jalen-green","14":"tag-nba","15":"tag-nick-richards","16":"tag-oso-ighodaro","17":"tag-phoenix","18":"tag-phoenix-suns","19":"tag-phoenixsuns","20":"tag-royce-oneale","21":"tag-suns","22":"tag-vasilije-micic"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114735085321018246","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119504","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=119504"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119504\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}