Suns to sign rookie Ray Spalding through next season

You know the Phoenix Suns have been in rebuild mode for about half our lifetimes, or something close to that.

Superfan Rhett Reese — not just a Suns fan but also the maker of the Deadpool movies and a number of other hits — has a son who’d never even experienced a Suns win until last week.

Personally, I’ve aged like Rose on the Titanic since the Suns last won a playoff game.

Half a lifetime into a rebuild, let’s have not one, not two, not five but SIX rookies on this year’s edition of the Phoenix Suns!

The Suns are apparently keeping Ray Spalding under contract for the rest of this season and probably next season.

Spalding, a 6’10” rookie forward who’s closest comp on the Suns in terms of skillset is Richaun Holmes, joins Deandre Ayton, Mikal Bridges, De’Anthony Melton, Elie Okobo and (two-way) George King as rookies on the 15-man roster.

It should be noted that Spalding’s agent is Aaron Turner, who’s only other important NBA client that’s looking for work this summer is Terry Rozier, a restricted free agent point guard who is looking for a starting job next season.

The free agent point guard market may have been set, in some ways, by Eric Bledsoe’s 4 year, $70 million contract ($17.5 million per year).

Rozier has not been a starter like Bledsoe, but is a lot younger and has roughly similar skills. Suns fans have talked about Rozier for what seems like years now. He will be on the open market for offers.

Rozier has to sign an offer from another team and see if the Celtics will match it and keep him, or let him go.

At point guard, the Celtics already have Marcus Smart under long term contract and plan to keep Kyrie Irving with a max contract. Irving has a player option, and likely will opt out to become a free agent at the same time Terry Rozier does. The Celtics can give Irving the most money and years to stay, but will likely won’t want to pay much more than the competition, and could be playing a game of chicken in the opening days of free agency.

If the Suns swoop in to sign Rozier to an offer on day one, the Celtics will only have two days to decide, and Irving might be still weighing options at that time.

It’s nonsensical for the Celtics to keep all of Rozier, Smart and Irving at point guard for the next 3-4 seasons, given that those three alone would likely be making up to half the salary cap for the whole roster.

On the Suns, Rozier would bring an extra dose of athleticism and defense, and would be a guy interested in making his own stamp on a team as the lead playmaker. Rozier’s career could possibly mirror Bledsoe’s (hopefully with more Suns playoff games!), in that he could be a 16/5/5 guy at the point who would be one of the best defenders in the game.