
Heading into the offseason after an incredibly underwhelming end to the 2023-24 NBA season, change felt like an inevitability for the Phoenix Suns.
Sure, the team wasn’t going to blow up their Big 3, not yet anyway, as they’ve simply invested too many assets in Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal to pull the plug on their pairing with Devin Booker after less than a year, but they were going to try to upgrade their roster wherever they could, even with a limited asset pool from which to get it done.
First came the additions of Ryan Dunn and Oso Ighodaro, a pair of defensive-minded wing/forwards who looked solid in Summer League and may end up logging snaps for the team this forthcoming season in limited action. Then the Suns, who are way over the salary cap, decided to largely take care of their own in free agency, adding just two veteran players to their rotation in Mason Plumlee and Monte Morris on value contracts in addition to re-signing Royce O’Neale and Josh Okogie on very trade-able contracts.
And yet, if there’s one element of the team that the Suns lost but weren’t able to replace just yet is Eric Gordon, the 3-and-D guard who can play one through three and has an ability to play both on and off-ball depending on what a team wants and who he is sharing the court with, who opted out of his contract to sign with the Philadelphia 76ers.