{"id":84092,"date":"2024-07-01T21:20:20","date_gmt":"2024-07-02T01:20:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=84092"},"modified":"2024-07-01T21:20:20","modified_gmt":"2024-07-02T01:20:20","slug":"phoenix-suns-looking-for-backup-point-guard-targeting-3-veterans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/07\/01\/phoenix-suns-looking-for-backup-point-guard-targeting-3-veterans\/","title":{"rendered":"Phoenix Suns Looking For Backup Point Guard Targeting 3 Veterans"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Phoenix Suns<\/a> have the core of their 2024-25 team under contract. The problem for the Suns is that their options are limited. They are well over the second tax apron with salaries totaling over $211 million and just 11 players holding deals, including 2024 unsigned first-round pick Ryan Dunn<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Given the Suns’ financial situation, general manager James Jones can offer only the veteran’s minimum to the three or four players he will sign to give them a full roster. NBA Teams can have 14 or 15 players on standard contracts though given their salary situation not sure it would make sense for the Suns not to carry a full complement of players.<\/p>\n

Pboenix’s biggest current need is at guard, particularly point guard. The Suns don’t have a true point guard besides Colin Gillespie<\/a>, who is on a two-way deal, on their roster 2024-25. Gillespie signed his contract with the Suns earlier today<\/a>. He played 24 games for Denver last season.<\/p>\n

For that matter, the Suns didn’t have a true point guard for much of the campaign last season. Instead, the Suns decided to use several players playing that position. While not a true floor general, Devin Booker<\/a> served as the team’s lead guard most of the time he was on the floor. Grayson Allen<\/a>, Eric Gordon<\/a>, Isaiah Thomas<\/a>, Jordan Goodwin<\/a>, and Saben Lee<\/a> also spent time at the one.<\/p>\n

Gordon signed a free-agent contract with Philadelphia<\/a> this offseason, and Goodwin, who finished last season in Memphis<\/a> on a two-way contract, is also a free agent. Thomas and Lee are also free agents.<\/p>\n

Phoenix Suns Looking For Backup Point Guard Targeting 3 Veterans<\/h2>\n

According to Gerald Bourguet of PHNXSports<\/a>, the Suns are honing in on their next backup point. Bourget said the Suns are very interested in free agents Kris Dunn,<\/a> Monte Morris<\/a>, and Kyle Lowry<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Kyle Dunn<\/h4>\n

Bourguet says Dunn is the Suns’ top target. The 30-year-old is more athletic and a better playmaker than the other two options. He is also an excellent distributor and defender. Bourget added that Dunn may command more from other teams than the Suns can pay.<\/p>\n

Dunn is coming off a season where he saw his most extensive NBA action since 2019-20, averaging 5.4 points on 47.0\/36.9\/68.8% for Utah. He also tallied 3.8 assists, 1.0 steals, and 1.2 turnovers in 19 minutes over 66 appearances, including 32 starts.<\/p>\n

Dunn produced one double-double a season ago. While the 6-3 guard scored in double-figures in nine of his 66 contests, he doled out double-digit assists on three occasions and recorded at least one steal 40 times.<\/p>\n

Monte Morris<\/h4>\n

Morris was hampered by injuries to start last season and appeared in just 33 games last year. The 29-year-old is an excellent shooter, with a career 3-point percentage of 39.1%, and a fantastic ball-handler. He is also an outstanding physical defender.<\/p>\n

While Morris didn’t play much in Detroit this past season, he was very good serving as Mike Conley’s understudy in Minnesota. Morris averaged 5.1 points, 2.3 assists, and 1.7 rebounds with shooting splits of 41.7\/42.4\/70.6%. He scored in double-figures just twice.<\/p>\n

Kyle Lowry<\/h4>\n

At 38, Lowry is the old head of the trio. While not the player he once was, Lowry is still a serviceable backup. He doesn’t do anything exceptional anymore, but he also won’t hurt his team.<\/p>\n

Lowry averaged 8.1 points, 4.2 assists, and 3.2 rebounds in 60 games for Miami and Philadelphia last season. Lowry also drained 1.6 triples a game with a shooting slash line of 43.2\/39.2\/84.0%. He produced three double-doubles and scored in double-figures in 20 contests, including three contests of 20+ points.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Phoenix Suns have the core of their 2024-25 team under contract. The problem for the Suns is that their options are limited. They are well over the second tax apron with salaries totaling over $211 million and just 11 players holding deals, including 2024 unsigned first-round pick Ryan Dunn. Given the Suns’ financial situation, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3146,"featured_media":84128,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,62,28],"tags":[49059,49335,319,2157],"class_list":["post-84092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-nba","category-suns","tag-2024-nba-free-agents","tag-kyle-dunn","tag-kyle-lowry","tag-monte-morris"],"modified_by":"Daniel Benjamin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3146"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84092"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84092\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}