The Phoenix Suns swung out in bringing over Hedo Turkoglu and Josh Childress last summer; Chills hardly played for Alvin Gentry, while Hedo was bad enough that the Suns had to dump him and productive Jason Richard for Vince Carter, Marcin Gortat and a bad contract in Mickael Pietrus by January. The team is in a strange position due to Steve Nash's age and the team's lack of championship potential. Where does it go?
Phoenix Suns: Rumors, Free Agents, Cap Space And More
Steve Nash can only wait for so long, which means that the Phoenix Suns are in a precarious position entering free agency.
CAP SPACE
Here’s a look at the Suns’ salary cap levels over the past six seasons.
The Suns have pulled back the salary reins in the last couple of seasons.
Heading into free agency, the Suns have a cap figure of $53 million with the leaguewide team salary cap set at $58 million and the luxury tax line at $70 million. This assumes that Phoenix sees reason and waives Carter, shrinking his salary commitment to $4 million.
FREE AGENTS
The Suns’ free agents are:
- Grant Hill
- Aaron Brooks (restricted and stuck in China)
Phoenix is expected to retain Hill despite pushes from true contenders to add the wily veteran.
RUMORS
What else the Suns will do remains to be seen. There’s not a can’t-miss player on the roster outside of Nash, and he happens to be about 10+ years older than everyone else on the team (excluding Hill). At some point, it will make sense for Nash to move on, either in free agency in 2012 or via a trade request. What happens to the team then? Does management just accept that the team will drop far enough to grab a very high pick? What do you do with all of these average players making league average salaries?
This team is really weirdly built.
For more on Phoenix, visit SB Nation’s Bright Side Of The Sun.
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