The Phoenix Suns made the first big splash of the NBA offseason ahead of Thursday's draft trading for Bradley Beal in exchange for Chris Paul, Landry Shamet and future second-round picks/first round-pick swaps.
The trade was largely a salary dump move for the Wizards. While there are questions about whether Paul's salary will continue to be guaranteed moving forward, there's almost no way to estimate what the Wizards will look like next season without knowing where Paul, Kristaps Porzingis and Kyle Kuzma will play.
Meanwhile, the Suns have completely revamped their franchise from top to bottom over the past six months. Matt Ishbia became Phoenix's owner in February and made his first big move acquiring Kevin Durant in exchange for Mikal Bridges and Cam Johnson. After failing to reach the Western Conference finals, the Suns fired Monty Williams and replaced him with Frank Vogel. Now Phoenix has four max-level players in Durant, Devin Booker, Beal and Deandre Ayton with the prospect of low-cost role players to fill out the roster.
That being said, I still feel like Phoenix is not done making moves. The NBA's new CBA will make it difficult for franchises to create super teams and the Suns are almost guaranteed to trigger a punitive clause, called Second Apron, which will make it difficult for them to sign free agents or trade for future draft picks. Part of the Suns' issues last postseason were because the team was too top-heavy and thin and this deal makes their situation even worse.
Booker will likely assume the point guard role. He had great success playing on-ball over the past two seasons and that culminated in the postseason as he averaged 33.7 PPG (58.5 FG%) and 7.2 APG with a career-low 2.9 TO/G. Booker and Durant
basketball
Devin Booker
Kevin Durant
Frank Vogel
Kristaps Porzingis
Chris Paul
Monty Williams
Bradley Beal
Deandre Ayton