2023 NBA Draft Team Recap: Phoenix Suns
Perhaps no team had as much roster turnover this offseason than the Phoenix Suns, and that turnover continued just before training camp.
The Suns kept their core of Kevin Durant and Devin Booker exiting last season - and what was looking like DeAndre Ayton until he became involved in the Damian Lillard trade - but added a third star in Bradley Beal and then a host of free agents on one or two year deals. This is a team that is fully in win now mode and because of that the majority of those free agent additions are in their mid to late twenties.
Further, the moves to acquire the top end talent on the roster has left it void of young talent and NBA first round draft picks or even picks in general.
That looked like it would change slightly this season - and it should be noted that the Sun's do currently own a 2024 first-round pick which is least favorable of theirs, Grizzlies and Wizards - as they selected Dayton forward Toumani Camara with the 52nd overall pick.
Many NBA Draft analysts believed that Dayon big man, DaRon Holmes II, would be the team's prospect to hear his name on draft night but he ultimately made the decision to return to school leaving Camara as the lone Flyers’ player drafted.
With Camara, the Suns looked to be taking a similar approach as the Denver Nuggets by drafting a more experienced player as opposed to a younger one with potentially higher upside.
Camara is a 6-foot-8 forward out of Brussels, Belgium that started his career at Georgia before transferring to Dayton for his final two years of college. The 23-year-old averaged just under 14 points per game in his senior year on 55% from the field and stretched his shooting range to the 3-point line while shooting 36% from beyond the 3-point line on 2.4 attempts.
Camara averaged over eight rebounds per game last season which also carried over into his four NBA Summer League games where he averaged seven per game.
One area that did not translate quite as well in the small sample size was the 3-point shooting where he made just 21% of his 3-point attempts on 3.5 per game. Of course, Camara has now been shipped off to the Portland Trail Blazers along with Ayton for the return of Jusuf Nurkic, Grayson Allen, Nassir Little and Keon Johnson.
This move leaves the Suns with just one player on the roster on a rookie scale contract, the aforementioned Johnson, and he is going on his third team in just his first three years in the league.
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