Suns Near Bottom of NBA in Asset Rankings
The Phoenix Suns have been hovering championship contender status for the last few seasons, though this past summer saw the organization push their chips to the middle of the table in a whole different manner.
The NBA Finals are on the minds of everybody in the Valley, and there's hope the spending of new owner Mat Ishbia can land the Suns awfully close to their target for the first time in franchise history.
With that goal, there's been a lot of change. The roster looks drastically different than it did this time last year, as stars such as Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal have now teamed up with Devin Booker to form one of the best trios in all of basketball.
That came with a cost, however. The Suns signed away control of their draft picks for the future and don't have a "young" star on their team, though Booker and Deandre Ayton are entering the prime years of their career.
In terms of assets, HoopsHype has Phoenix at No. 19 out of 30 teams in the NBA.
"The Suns are much lower in these rankings after moving several of their core players like Mikal Bridges and Cameron Johnson. They’ve traded just about everyone outside of Devin Booker and Deandre Ayton to acquire Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal. They also traded every single draft pick and swap they possibly could in the process, leaving them with few liquid assets to significantly improve the roster now." - author Yossi Gozlan.
That's not exactly a surprise, as the Suns rank ahead of most NBA title contenders this season with the exception of the Golden State Warriors (16) and Milwaukee Bucks (17).
Most of their draft capital was sent packing to the Brooklyn Nets in the Durant deal:
2023 first-round pick (from Phoenix), 2025 first-round pick (from Phoenix), 2027 first-round pick (from Phoenix), 2028 first-round pick swap (from Phoenix), 2029 first-round pick (from Phoenix)
Players such as Cam Johnson and Mikal Bridges were involved as well, breaking up the core that saw Phoenix nearly win the 2021 NBA Finals.
The Beal trade with Washington didn't see much besides Chris Paul and Landry Shamet being moved, as the Suns were only able to trade second-round picks and do pick-swaps in the first round.
