How many GMs would swap places with the Suns? Probably none

Mat Ishbia bet big on this roster and now the bill is due.

One year ago, Phoenix Suns owner Mat Ishbia proclaimed that, ”Ask the other 29 GMs—26 of them would trade their whole team for our whole team and our draft picks and everything as is.”

A year later, it’s more accurate to say that no GM would want to trade places with the Suns after a dreadful 36-46 season, despite having the highest team payroll in the league by a wide margin.

To put it bluntly, the Suns are in a situation where there are only bad options, and worse ones for how to proceed from here. They’re in salary cap hell, above the second apron. The team is heading to its fourth coach in four years. Their draft picks are nothing but late first-round swaps, with their original (lottery) picks going to other teams until about 2030. Bradley Beal never gelled with the team and produced woeful on-court/off-court metrics, and is owed $111 million over the next 2 years, and has a no-trade clause. Kevin Durant likely wants out, and might not have a choice if the Suns want to get out from under Beal’s contract.

Let’s take a moment to review what options the Suns have going forward.

Stand Pat with the Big 3

Let’s start off by saying, this isn’t happening. With the Suns paying super-luxury tax money, Beal producing nothing, the Suns losing (the experiment is over: this roster hasn’t worked for two straight years), and Durant likely wanting out onto a winning team, there’s no way the Suns can decide to do nothing. Their current salary cap position over the second apron prevents them from building a roster around the Big 3 that can win. This isn’t a realistic option, nor is it one that Ishbia (or the fans) would put up with.

Let’s move on to the more realistic options.

Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images

Durant and Beal are Out

Let’s start this section with the blindingly obvious: no one wants Beal and his bloated salary.

He’s not a bad guy or a locker room cancer. He’s just wildly overpaid for what he produces. That doesn’t change the fact that any conversation with another team about acquiring him will start with the question, “How many first-round picks will you send us to take him off your hands?” Add in the no-trade clause in Beal’s contract, and finding a buyer only gets harder. It is literally the worst contract in the NBA.

The Suns don’t really have first-round draft picks to send, or at least not ones that teams want. Mostly, they’re “worst of” swaps with other teams, nearly guaranteeing whatever they send will be in the 25-30 range. An argument can be made that these picks hold LESS value than early second-round picks due to the guaranteed salary first-round draft picks incur.

Yeesh.

So, where do the Suns get decent picks to induce teams to take Beal off their hands?

Looking at what the Suns have on their roster, only Durant, Booker, MAYBE Ryan Dunn, and MAYBE Grayson Allen are worth one or more first-round picks. The Suns probably aren’t trading Booker unless he asks for one. Allen and Dunn are maybe worth a late first.

Which leaves Kevin Durant.

As the only asset capable of generating the assets to send Bradley Beal away for some expiring contracts. If the Suns are getting first-round picks back for Durant, the salary that’s coming back is less likely to be attached to great players.

Which means that the trade for KD will be a pu-pu platter of random salary cap filler plus some first-round picks that immediately go away with Beal, in exchange for some additional random salary cap material.

This leaves the Suns with Booker, a handful of random (mediocre) players, and only late-first-round picks until the next decade. This is the exact formula for the same kind of basketball the Suns gave us through most of the 2010s.

Whither Booker?

Devin Booker turns 29 at the start of the 2025-26 season. The Suns are talking about a $149 million, two-year extension for him this summer. That’s a lot of money to commit to a player that’s never really proven he could lead a team deep in the playoffs (let’s be real: Chris Paul was the reason why the Suns suddenly got good, and tanked when he left). He’s a weak defender, and his shooting efficiency leaves something to be desired. But, the Suns are likely to give it to him, given he’s “Mr. Suns” and the face of the team.

Still, the next few years are going to be brutal, with no end in sight. It’s unclear how the Suns will rebuild without high draft picks and limited salary cap space as they wait for the contracts of the players they traded for Beal and Durant to expire. Booker probably doesn’t have the option of waiting 5 years for the Suns to get a decent draft pick, and then another 2-3 years for their draft picks to develop, given he’d be 36 by then.

I’d be amazed if he had the patience to play through the better part of a decade in mediocrity either.

Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images

The Drought Continues

The Suns are perhaps the most snakebit franchise in all pro sports, having been formed in 1969 and never won a championship. It’s hard to imagine that ending anytime soon. They will remain mediocre if they retain Beal. Getting rid of Beal means trading Durant for picks. Trading Durant for picks to get rid of Beal leaves Booker on a team with one pseudo-star (he’s only made the All-Star team 4 times in his 10 seasons), no high draft picks, and a random assortment of filler around him for several years.

The Suns really have two options: loyalty to Booker and a commitment to mediocrity, or trading Booker for draft assets and initiating a complete tear-down in the hopes of duplicating the success of the Oklahoma City Thunder. Then again, a complete tear down is just as likely, if not more so, to result in the horrible Suns basketball of the 2010s.

Which brings me back to my conclusions: no one wants to be in the Suns’ shoes right now. All they have are bad options and worse ones.

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