On July 18, Beijing time, the Suns officially announced that a three-for-one deal was reached, sending Payne, a second-round pick, and some cash to the Spurs in exchange for a future second-round pick.
Payne, a backup point guard for the Suns, averaged 9.8 points, 2.6 rebounds and 4.2 assists during his four seasons with the team, and his salary is $6.5 million next season. Although his statistics are not bright enough and are just a normal performance of a role player, the Suns' ability to rise to become the favorite to win the Western Conference in the past few years is inseparable from Payne's steady play.
Since he is the hero of the team's rise, when he officially left here, the Sun official still issued a farewell speech, which seemed very moving: "Thank you, Payne, you can always bring energy to the valley." ”
Although this is just a short thank you, you can feel the Suns' gratitude to Payne and his performance on this team, which is also well deserved. With the gratitude of our former club, we believe that Payne can usher in a new start with the Spurs, and we look forward to him joining forces with Ventanyama to make the Spurs' record even better in the new season."
Some people may say that the Suns sent Payne away, almost to the Spurs, after all, the return of a second-round pick does not change the overall face of the Suns. However, you need to know that although this is a simple transaction, it can save the Suns more than $10 million in luxury taxes; At the same time, it also gave the Suns a $6.5 million trade exception, which is the value that sending Payne brings to the team.
Of course, the Suns also signed Magic former forward Ball Poll after sending Payne away; This is a player with a height of two meters and eight, his body shape is very similar to Durant, and he is currently less than 25 years old; Last season, he scored 9.1 points, 5.8 rebounds, 1.0 assists and 1.2 blocks, and he will be slowly scratched out by the Suns like a lottery ticket in the new season. We can still look forward to it.
At this point, the Suns' 16-man roster has been officially released, they are:
Durant, Beal, Booker, Ayton, Gordon, Okogie, Damien Lee, Bates Diop, Eubanks, Yuta Watanabe, Boll Pol, Metu, Goodwin, Wayne Wright, Kamara, Saben Lee (two-way contract);
Of those 16 people, you can see that the Suns have superstars who can play tough battles in almost every position, and this roster doesn't have too many shortcomings, depending on how well the current coach can adjust them. Unlike last season, the Suns used to have fewer and fewer core players, and this team wants to go further, that is, to play the power of the team, not crazy into the singles mode of superstars.
In last season's playoff game against the Nuggets, we found that Coach Monty did not fully play the role of Booker and Durant, and it was a crazy singles of the two in multiple games; In the last two games, after the two men's offensive efficiency declined, the Suns were eliminated miserably.
However, the current owner of the Suns did not break up the combination of Booker and Durant, after all, Durant only joined the Suns in the middle of the season, and the run-in between him and the team has not reached a new level; Therefore, the owner decided to bring in Beal, a shooting guard, on this basis, so that the lineup would gather stars and attack the championship. How extravagant is this lineup? With a total salary of more than $180 million next season, and more than $240 million after the luxury tax, the Suns will become one of the most expensive teams in the league.
I have to say that in order for the team to win the championship, the new owner is really very arrogant, no worse than Warriors owner Lacob, let's look forward to the Suns can play more exciting games in the new season.