Suns Free Agency, Day 1: What grade do you give them?

Welcome to the start of free agency!!

The Phoenix Suns today locked down their point guard situation by re-signing both Chris Paul and Cameron Payne, lost Torrey Craig but then added JaVale McGee to back up Deandre Ayton.

The Suns are now two-plus deep at every spot except one of the forward spots.

• PG: Chris Paul, Cameron Payne
• SG: Devin Booker, Landry Shamet
• Forward A: Mikal Bridges, Cameron Johnson
• Forward B: Jae Crowder
• C: Deandre Ayton, JaVale McGee, Jalen Smith

*Out for season: C Dario Saric

*Gone to free agency: Langston Galloway, E’Twaun Moore, Abdel Nader, Frank Kaminsky, Ty-Shon Alexander

Biggest Need: Physical, mobile forward

The Suns use their forwards interchangeably around Ayton, expect them to rebound, rotate to protect the rim and defend on the perimeter against any of the opponents’ forwards. After losing Torrey Craig, that’s about a 15-20 minutes per game slot waiting for someone on the free agent market to grab.

Ideally that forward has size to rebound against 6’9” or taller forwards, but also tons of mobility, who can make open threes and hopefully even generate some free throws by attacking the basket.

They would love that someone to come off the free agent market commanding $4 million or less per year, about half the average NBA salary, unless they’re willing to make trades.

Spending vehicles:

• Remainder of MLE ($4 million to start, up to 4 years)
• Bi-annual exception ($3.7 million to start, up to 2 years)
• Veteran minimums ($2-3 million each, one year)

The Suns also need to fill out the remainder of the 15-man roster with another point guard, a third shooting guard and another forward or two.

Here’s the updated cap sheet.

The Suns can aggregate contracts up to another $14.5 million for their remaining four roster spots before crossing into luxury tax land, but none over $4 million individually and only a couple can be over the minimum due to salary cap rules.