Analyst: Suns Must Retain Top Free Agent

PHOENIX -- If you've heard it once, you've heard it 100 times: The Phoenix Suns don't exactly have money to throw around this summer.

That's the result of new owner Mat Ishbia making trades for Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal within the last 16 months, which has landed the Suns in some fairly strict financial grounds thanks to the new CBA's second luxury tax apron.

In short, Phoenix has little wiggle room in free agency and the trade market. With a number of players with options and/or set to depart to the open market, the Suns simply don't have much control of retaining their crop of potential free agents.

However, they do have Royce O'Neale's Bird rights, and Bleacher Report says that's a fairly easy decision to make.

"The Suns are as top-heavy as a team can get, and there aren't really ways to change that. Well, not if Phoenix is truly committed to keeping Devin Booker, Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal," wrote Zach Buckley.

"The Suns are in the dreaded second apron and essentially out of assets, meaning their means of acquiring external talent are almost non-existent. They have to just scramble to keep what they have, which Royce O'Neale and his representation surely know.

"Phoenix has Bird rights on O'Neale, so money isn't a cap obstacle. If his agent really held the Suns' feet to the fire, he could walk away with the kind of contract he'd never otherwise collect. Maybe that would pose some problems in the future, but when has that stopped this Phoenix regime from super-spending before?"

That's not an unpopular opinion by any stretch - as our own Kevin Hicks detailed why O'Neale should be brought back in this article written two weeks ago.

It simply makes too much sense for the Suns.