How NBA Free Agency Opening Affects the Phoenix Suns: LeBron James, Royce O’Neale & Beyond

How NBA Free Agency Opening Affects the Phoenix Suns: LeBron James, Royce O’Neale & Beyond

today on locked on Phoenix Suns the finals are over which means free agency at least part of it is allowed to begin the question is who should the Suns have an eye on and will they have some action coming down the pike between now and when free agency actually opens on July first you are locked on suns your daily Phoenix Suns podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day and we’re back this is locked on Phoenix Suns part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day I’m Brendan clean your host welcome to the show I am a credential media member covering the Suns for the past 7even seasons and the host of the just basketball show wherever you get your podcasts thank you for making lock on suns your first listen to kick off your Tuesday we are free and available everywhere so if it’s your first time finding us hit follow hit subscribe wherever you’re finding the show and you’ll get a new episode in your feed every single Monday through Friday we’ll be here all offseason free agency as we’re about to hit on has officially started it’s going to be a blast for the next month plus stick right here get locked on to the Phoenix Suns each and every day become an every dayer wake up we’re here for you every morning right in your feed come on this journey right along with me today’s episode guys brought to you by the FanDuel sports book the official sports book of the Pod locked on podcast Network make every moment more right now new customers get $200 in bonus Bets with any winning $5 bet that’s $200 in bonus Bets with any winning $5 bet visit fanduel.com lockon to get started all right this is via Sports Illustrated new NBA free agency rule I’ve been teasing this reminding you guys of it for a while but it is here the Boston Celtics are NBA champions the off season can fully begin both in the content world and in the real world per the new collective bargaining agreement that the league and the players agreed to last spring teams may now negotiate with their own upcoming free agents the day after the final game of the NBA finals which by the time you’re hearing this will be Tuesday we might already hear some news we’ll get to that in a second previously teams were prevented from beginning those negotiations until the mor atorium period of free agency which was what June 30th at like 3:00 Arizona time used to be midnight Eastern 9:00 Arizona time and there was tampering and all sorts of shenanigans now the league has said okay we’re going to have the moratorium which we didn’t even used to have but on top of that we’re going to have this separate Early Access moment this this VIP Club Club where basically you’re able to negotiate with your own players meaning for the Suns Royce O’Neal who we will get to meaning for you know around the NBA guys like Pascal seamar expected to sign contracts pretty quickly uh Tyrese Maxi who’s technically restricted but uh I’m not exactly sure how that frankly works but of course if a team just wants to come to a contract with their own player he may never even actually hit restricted free agency after all it could just go straight into a Sixers deal right away that’s the gist of what this rule is we’ll get to Royce O’Neal we’ll get to some of the other potential minimum targets that the Suns have their eyes on or might have their eyes on first though why I think this may be a fairly familiar site for NBA fans meaning a little bit of a delay is related to none other than a guy who has caused this type of delay multiple times in the past which is LeBron James I’m not going to talk too much about whether the Suns have a real shot at this guy any more than I already have because frankly nothing new has happened which could lead you to just believe LeBron’s going back to the Lakers no big deal I will remind you the Lakers still have not signed a head coach maybe that comes quickly as well if it is going to be JJ reik who of course was calling the finals for ESPN up until Monday night as well he has a player option uh for $ 51.4 million if he stays with the Lakers he could sign a maximum of a three-year $162 million contract he could sign a threeyear $157 million contract with a different team or he could go for a two-year deal maybe with a player option what they call usually a one plus one for 1004 million a little bit of a raise on this upcoming year and of course that second guarantee season if he were to opt out of that player option those are his potentials but the reason I think it will cause that delay is think about all the different teams that might have an interest in Lebron all right let’s look at the cap tracker on spot track the Sixers of course the Lakers of course if you’re talking sign in trades I would add the Warriors I would add the Nicks to that list I would add the Heat and I would have add the Cavs to that list so from there you look at Warriors Klay Thompson is a free agent the Sixers Tyrese Maxi which is more of a formality than anything but of course he’s a free agent the Sixers are expected to pursue Paul George so now you’re including the Clippers and Paul George from the Nicks standpoint you have ogan anobi and Isaiah hartenstein from the Miami standpoint Jimmy Butler can’t actually agree to the extension that he wants until uh July 6 but you have uh players on that team including Delon Wright who are free agents and with the Cavs you know the extension for Donovan Mitchell they haven’t hired a head coach potential trades that might not be in this exclusive negotiating window with their own players actually the Cavs don’t have a ton of free agent players uh in the end here but that’s a huge ripple effect to include Warriors Sixers Clippers uh heat you know Cavs Lakers of course with their own and they have D’Angelo Russell’s option not to mention any of these uh potential ring chasing destinations for LeBron which to me I don’t think he’s going to the Clippers so it’s it’s really just the Suns I think that would fit into that category some people are going to include the Mavericks or the Nuggets or something crazy I bet you but that’s not it’s not reasonable it’s not realistic the most likely thing is that he goes back to the Lakers the question is when and does does how far does he take it right what is he wanting what is he trying to leverage here does he want he’s he’s allegedly stayed out of this coaching thing that could be a component of it at least not maybe to leverage the Lakers to hire a particular coach but maybe he is taking a back seat regardless seeing who that coach is obviously I think that he wants to make them feel pressure to improve do they make a swing for dejonte Murray or whatever maybe bigger maybe Trey young maybe I don’t think Donovan Mitchell is going to be available but add him in there as a hypothetical Jimmy Butler Paul George himself who I just mentioned is connected to this situation in a different roundabout way right but all that can’t happen until July so it’s funny where the biggest dominoes I still don’t think will necessarily fall until all the dominoes can fall because of the leverage that they’re trying to create involves bigger moves bigger things so what I think we will see big big big picture is I don’t think the Clippers will come to a contract agreement with Paul George I don’t think the Warriors necessarily will come to one with Klay Thompson and I could see the Knick situation getting a little bit interesting where hartenstein and OG and anobi both go out onto the market so I think that’s kind of going to be what’s leading the news cycle here as this stuff all opens up and it is nice I think for all of us fans but also the league and everything to have this come during the week the finals could have ended on Friday and then this all would have been happening on a Saturday which would have been weird now we’re here it’s going to happen these headlines get ready for them but I don’t think LeBron or all those other players that are at the top of this thing that I just mentioned are going to put pen to paper even though they technically can which means this all could still be held up at the top of it except for some of the smaller players some players the Suns might have their eyes on when it comes to NBA free agency and those minimum contract offers that they’ll be able to extend to some of these guys so who are those players that the suns are going to be watching to see if they stay with their teams or not and whether they’ll be available come July 1st we’ll get to the those guys coming up next first Today’s Show brought to you by the FanDuel Sportsbook summertime means baseball basketball and more and you can bet it all on FanDuel right now new customers get $200 in bonus Bets with any winning $5 bet that’s 200 bucks you can use to bet everything from the baseball MVP the WNBA MVP and more speaking of the WNBA I’m going to look at odds for Tuesday I will be at the Liberty Mercury game the Mercury are currently Sixpoint home underdogs that’s brutal they were pretty competitive with the aces last week beat the aces or I’m sorry narrowly lost to the aces uh nearly beat them if not for some foul calls down the stretch giving six points at home to the Liberty I kind of like that so if you want to stay local there’s one for you baseball basketball tennis all all of it at FanDuel visit fanduel.com lockon and add a big win to your summer bucket list FanDuel America’s number one sports book all right let’s keep it rolling so talked about LeBron PG clay all those guys at the very top and how they could dry it all up uh for the moment until that time finally hits I want to talk about Roy O’Neal to close the show I have a couple of comps for you guys in terms of players who were traded acquired the 2023 trade deadline and then hit free agency and then ultimately stuck with their team which is of course what the Suns aim to be doing here with Roy what numbers and formats can we look be looking at for that contract so we’ll get there also want to remind you guys to check out locked on NBA all offseason long National level great hosts they got you covered every day as all the news around the league continues to churn as well but let’s go to Suns land where we kind of take a peek into what the front office might have its eyes on here during this negotiating period which teams have some big Mayes on their books that they’re going to be negotiating with right now starting Tuesday that the Suns might gobble up as a minimum option if they do not go back to their team all right so truly you know you can look really at the highest of highs with all this stuff like I’m looking at Gordon Hayward and I’m at least a little bit curious you know he’s making 30 but he was a shell of himself in the postseason I’m not saying that makes me excited to go get him if I’m another team but look weird situation got traded to the Thunder out of nowhere maybe you’re looking that high I don’t actually want to start there where I want to start is dlon Wright dlon Wright and Chris Dunn these are two players we’ve talked about a lot two players who I think their teams certainly should be interested in retaining them we’ve already heard from John gambadoro of Arizona Sports here locally that the Jazz have an interest in retaining dun they could only go up to a certain number it’s not going to be a lot but it’s going to be more than the minimum which is all the Suns can offer so does he go back to Utah does that happen right away and eliminated Target from the Suns list here I think the same thing can be said for Delon Wright who is a little older maybe priorities are slightly different maybe money’s not number one top of the top the heat are in flux it’s hard for him to know right now if he’ll have a significant role with Miami next year so I could see Del Wright not signing a deal immediately with Miami during this stretch it’s also a very long stretch just as a separate point it’s long so there’s no rush but I could see the lawn right pumping the brakes and then maybe still going back to Miami once he gets a gauge of this stuff but how those things look will will I think set the stage for the rest of the Suns off season on the wing I’m looking at Kelly UB Jr I got four for you here all right Kelly UB Jr Derrick Jones Jr both players who are currently on minimums who I could see potentially getting a raise from their teams now there’s a limit to how high they can go just like I was kind of talking about with Chris Dunn but again more than the Suns could offer or do they go to a team with the mid-level exception or cap space get a raise and leave Philly or Dallas but still obviously be out of the sun’s reach I mean those are probably the two best minimum signings of the offseason last year so those guys probably will want to make some money is that on their current team or do they go or do they wait this again this negotiating period do they wait it out and wait till July we’ll see team players are only going to make deals during this stretch if it’s a situation like maybe a maxi or it is and even then that the structure of it will be formatted in such a way that I would imagine he’ll actually sign that offer that new contract rookie scale extension after they make their cap space moves but we might hear about it sooner they’re only going to do that if it’s if it makes perfect sense cuz they don’t they lit they cannot legally talk to other teams to get leverage or play games or you know manipulate it all so UB and Jones are good examples of players where there’s no real rush to go back but if they did that of course takes them off the board if they don’t though I think we still will hear some rumors they’re not legally allowed to talk but they’re going to at least say you know you’re probably going to hear reports like Derrick Jones Jr is going to you know test his you’re kind of already hearing this with Clay test his options extern and you know um be on their way toward free agency and see what the market might give them as they look for a deal somewhere in the eight fig range you know you’ll say stuff like that so those two guys two more interesting ones though who are not minimum guys currently but their Market is going to be interesting for different reasons one is Kyle Anderson 31 years old $9 million contract unrestricted free fre agent the wolves do have early bird rights on him so they can go up to a certain number probably the max that anyone else would really give him so they’ll be able to be competitive to keep him but of course Minnesota has a big tax Crunch and we don’t know what they’re going to do I think we expect them to probably keep Carl Anthony towns is that a given I don’t know if they keep him I would think they’ll probably try to upgrade on the margins if possible on top of that do they really want to pay that much money for Kyle Anderson or does he become somewhat of an Eric Gordon where okay you know I’m on my fourth contract now or whatever it might be Gordon made more money than Anderson it’s not a one to one but yes I’m comfortable in Minnesota do I really want to do that I don’t know maybe a bigger role on a minimum with a different team we’ve talked about those two-year minimums with the player option where for somebody like Anderson with 10 years of experience you’re probably guaranteeing him six six half million if it’s you know a one-year offer with Minnesota for eight versus two 6 and2 with the Suns these are the things we’re going to start to see so Anderson’s a a more a better example of somebody I think that truly if if he wants to go back and he’s willing to take a pay cut which I’m sure he will I don’t think A team’s going to give him nine next year maybe he just goes right back to Minnesota and that’s one we do see get done that that’s a good example one that I do not think we see get done but I I’m going to be watching and reading the rumors and te leaves around is DeAnthony Melton DeAnthony Melton 8.7 million this past season of course was drafted by the Suns or I believe drafted by Memphis but played his rookie season with the Suns we know how he fits with Booker Ben a minute but would would help this team smaller okay you know another guy that’s kind of the same size as Beal book and Allen Gordon but if they could get him on a minimum I mean my goodness I doubt it I think his Market’s higher than that he’s always been an underpaid underrated player I think somebody will just take the dive and go get him but he was really really injury riddled this season he’s never really been able to stay healthy even dating back to college I mean he was had the academic ineligibility and then he stepped away from USC I I believe I don’t I don’t know remember all the details but I think on top of that he had injuries all the way back then maybe there maybe this is just the one-year blip right I mean Kelly UB Jr scored 20 points a game for Charlotte and he’s on a minimum Derrick Jones Jr you know has made more than the minimum in the past in his career and dipped back down it happens to guys Melton’s 26 he’s in his prime you would never think it but didn’t have a great year health concerns maybe he maybe it is one of those players I’m not betting on it again I think somebody should sign him and will sign him but it’s going to be an interesting one to keep an eye ey on I think another one in this camp in the on the wing guard kind of rotation would be uh Gary Harris another smaller two guard you know beating beating a dead horse a little bit with that but that’ll be an interesting one as far as big men go we already heard rumors on Monday that Andre Drummond is looking for other opportunities now does that mean other opportunities where I make more money or does that truly mean I’m done with Chicago I don’t know he would have to uh you know give up his early bird rights and he might have bigger offers but hey maybe the Suns say you’re going to maybe close some games for us and shockingly Drummond is only 31 years old so that’ll be one to look at if if he doesn’t go back to Chicago right away that’ll tell me he’s at least open to sacrificing money because they can give him more than a lot of teams can if he moves on from that that that that speaks some some truth to to the situation and then I guess Mason plumbley would be the only other one right plumbley who was acquired by the Clippers and then resigned by the clippers but you know not a great athlete maybe not a playoff player at the end of the day and they have Ty we know tyou is a fan of small ball sometimes honestly throw Batum in there as well the Clippers have a lot of questions and again they’re a team that I expect to be held up with the LeBron Paul George domino effect they have James Harden to sort out as well but again even if players don’t sign them not signing could tell us they’re available them not signing and being patient could give us an idea of what their Market might be so we’re going to get a lot of information and a lot of clarity about what the suns are looking at right away those are some of the names I’m looking at but there will be more and it’ll start Tuesday the Suns can also start negotiating with their own guys namely bullbull Josh aogi and the guy I want to focus on which is Royce O’Neal I have three comps for you of players at the 2023 deadline who were Acquired and resigned what are those new contracts that those players got tell us about what Rey could be looking at and sort of what the minations are when those negotiations happen and does that change what we should expect between O’Neal and Phoenix coming up next first Today’s Show brought to you by eBay Motors passion drive and patience the formula for winning Championship shout out Boston is also what keeps your ride or die alive eBay Motors has everything you need to maintain your vehicle and level it up to Peak Performance whether that’s a 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probably know where I’m going at that deadline the move that happened like 12 hours after LeBron uh sorry Durant went to the Suns was the Lakers leveling up eventually enough to make a Western Conference Finals run of course and what they did is they went out and got D’Angelo Russell Jared Vanderbilt Malik Beasley that same trade ended up with Mike Conley in Minnesota and who was the final piece of that Utah not sure what they got I can’t fully remember point is the the son uh the Lakers resigned Jared Vanderbilt last off season it was technically an extension I believe uh maybe it was a new contract four years 48 million all guaranteed 10.7 million in year one all right of course D’Angelo Russell signed a 2-year about let’s call it like 38 37 38 million contract and he now has that $19.8 million player option which I referred to in that first segment um pretty interesting one in terms of oh no it’s an $8.7 million player uh player option I don’t know where I got 19.8 very interesting from the standpoint of the Lakers making trades their cap flexibility potentially presenting another point guard option to a team that might need that and everything else but he got his money and he got frankly probably more than most teams were going to pay him by way of coming to a team that needed him that might need him to be a trade chip and that had just given things up to acquire him so of course I think you know where I’m going I mean you could even include rachim mura in here who got a three-year I think $51 million contract or so the Lakers are the one toone example for a lot of this and history tells us those players get paid ruy got 16 million in year one or so Russell got about $117 million in year one and they both got 30 40 plus million guaranteed that leverage goes a long way especially if you play well I would say both players were more valuable to the Lakers last postseason than Roy was to the Suns this postseason so let’s at least look at another example which was Mike connley in Minnesota who of course was the other component of that deal he wasn’t up for a new contract but this past season he got a two-year $21 million extension now of course he’s a little closer to Roy in terms of age given that he is in his mid-30s Royce is in his early 30s and they’re more in the same ballpark of value in terms of minutes and athletic ability and all that stuff Mike Conley’s I don’t know just because he’s a point guard I guess and such a respected guy I kind of feel like he has more value but he’s smaller I still think that Minnesota deal is good is the bottom line of all of that but from a sun standpoint to Circle back to Royce O’Neal yes only only thing’s nice but again a little different because it was an extension and con kind of a unique scenario given that he’s older but still valuable Etc I think the more the more realistic learning lessons or comparison points are those Lakers guys and they all got overpaid they all got over market value again I don’t want to say overpaid like they’re bad but overpaid compared to what maybe another team would have paid them or what we thought they were in line for prior to the trade in the postseason season and so I think the same thing will be happening with Roy especially given that the suns are in even more Dire Straits in terms of the cap than the Lakers even were right so the same way we’re talking about Russell as being important potentially to go to Atlanta for Trey young or something or Deonte Murray or whatever the trade the Lakers look to make is you’d like to have that Russell salary the suns are even in in that in a bigger way they don’t even have the flexibility or the optionality anymore because of the second apron to go they’re not thinking about a player of that caliber but to get any player to get anybody that’s not a minimum guy or some kind of rookie scale person or something the Suns need to stack up these contracts to have players to send out if they want to keep making moves and as I’ve said all along Rey knows that Roy’s agents know that and you know tin foil cap or a hat or whatever you want to say Royce’s agent he is represented by Mark Bin’s priority Sports which is the father of the CEO of the sons and George rousakis I think is how you say his name I could just be completely making that up but I believe that’s what it was same person who represents Tyler kch so as you know we’ve been talking about go check out those episodes for more details on what I’m talking about there if you have not already it all just feels like it’s lining up from the team side from the agency side from the history side Roy is going to get him a lot of money Roy is going to get a contract that I think NBA fans who don’t quite get all the logic that I just laid out for you might laugh at frankly this might be one of those like what did they do you know the the Pistons gave Jalil okaf for what or they gave the Pistons gave Marvin baggley what Last Summer the the Blazers gave Jeremy Grant how much you know obviously Royce O’Neal is not going to be making Jeremy grant money but it could be one of those contracts that comes early to round and circle back to the point of this whole episode this could happen soon this deal between Royce O’Neal and the Suns given that Windor already basically said it’s a lock to happen it’s just a matter of how much and all the connections and everything I just laid out for you this could come soon this could be big and this could be side-eyed by the average NBA fan not that you all care you shouldn’t care it doesn’t matter cuz you know it makes some sense and it’s kind of what the Suns have to do but get ready I think we could get a royce O’Neal contract this week that’ll wrap us up enjoy the madness enjoy the rumors enjoy the news this time of Year’s fun even though the Suns aren’t going to be in the business of making the biggest of big moves probably it’s fun to follow anyway I’ll be here with you every step of the way instant episodes as quickly as I can record them when any news does break so if you get that Royce contract I commit to you I will have an episode in your feed within 12 hours of that if not very much sooner so again hit follow or subscribe get that content in your feed dayby day throughout the offseason become an every dayer get locked on to the Suns right along with me throughout the summer I’ll talk to you guys tomorrow

With the NBA Finals over, free agency has begun, meaning everyone from LeBron James to Royce O’Neale can negotiate a new contract with their incumbent team.

Brendon Kleen of @justbasketballfans breaks down why the NBA could be in for an old-fashioned LeBron hold up summer before listing off the players the Suns are likely keeping an eye on. Then, a look at comps from the 2023 offseason to gauge Royce O’Neale’s potential value.

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