Lakers News: 3 Best 2024 Suns Free Agent Candidates For LA

The last time your Los Angeles Lakers squared off against the Phoenix Suns (a game LA eventually won, 100-95, though the Suns were missing two of their best three players in Bradley Beal and Devin Booker), we took a look at a handful of potential trade candidates potentially worth poaching.

This time, we're examining three Suns vets, all inked to insane-value veteran's minimum deals, who could opt into free agency next summer.

Eric Gordon

The 34-year-old sharpshooting combo guard, who was named the 2016-17 Sixth Man of the Year, remains a helpful release valve for Kevin Durant and co. off the bench in his 16th season. Across eight games this year (five as a starter, mostly by necessity with injuries to Beal and/or Booker), he's averaging 13.6 points on .437/.308/1.000 shooting splits, 3.1 assists, 2.3 rebounds, and 0.8 steals a night. That three-point shooting number should increase, given that for his career he's a 37% three-point shooter on 6.2 attempts a night. At some point, injuries will probably age him out of the game, but at least this year, he hardly seems to have lost a step.

Josh Okogie

The 25-year-old has emerged as the Suns' preferred starting small forward, despite being all of 6'4", thanks to his ruthless defense on the perimeter. As a shooter, Okogie is no great shakes -- he's shooting 8.3 points on a .469/.235/.842 slash line this season. His wing defense would be really, really useful on the Lakers right now, especially on a minimum deal. That said, he'll certainly command more than that on the open market next year.

Yuta Watanabe

The 6'9" small forward was one of the NBA's best three-point shooters in 2022-23, connecting on 44.4% of his 2.3 triple tries while with the Brooklyn Nets. This year, he's come back down to earth, making "just" 34.4% of his four three-point attempts a night for Phoenix. He's not a particularly multi-dimensional scorer, but his size and shooting make him an intriguing floor-spacing threat.

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