This move is GAME-CHANGING for Phoenix...

The Phoenix Suns have a lot of question marks with their roster this offseason, and with Royce O'Neal being atop of the list as he is one of the key free agents to look out for with this squad, being a fantastic addition for them in the second half of this season, would it be a smart decision for the Suns to keep him, and are they thinking about keeping him? We'll be breaking down all of that and more on this episode of Suns Digest. I'm Bruce Flores. Before we dive in on all of this Royce O'Neal news, 97% of you guys who watch our videos are not subscribed, so we'd greatly appreciate it if you guys enjoy the daily Phoenix Suns content. Do hit that subscribe button as we're trying to get to 1,000 subscribers. With all the news and rumors coming out with this team, this is the daily hub for you guys. Make sure to stay up to date. Without further ado, let's get into the topic at hand today. Make sure to grab a snack as it's going to be a jam-packed episode. And like I mentioned in the introduction, could Royce O'Neal be coming back to the Phoenix Suns? Now, obviously, they acquired him halfway through at the trade deadline, trading away five of their veteran minimum contracts, two of those guys being Yuta Watanabe and Chemez Metu, in to get Royce O'Neal. A solid 3-and-D wing was a teammate with Kevin Durant over in Brooklyn, so had some chemistry with him, and ultimately could allow Kevin Durant to play that power forward position his true really position at this point and kind of slot into there where Royce O'Neal could be that 3-and-D wing he ultimately had a decent and solid second half to the season here we want to look at his season stats we can see 7.7 points 4.8 total rebounds and 2.8 assists on 40% shooting from the field 37% shooting from three and 69% shooting from the free throw now obviously came over in the second half like i mentioned solid three and d wing but in the playoffs did not have the greatest performances if we want to look at his games during the playoffs we can see the average five points 4.8 rebounds and one assist in those four games and his shooting numbers were just not the greatest Royce O'Neal is known for his three-point ability his ability to score the basket shooting 31 percent from the field and 33 percent from three-point range is not going to cut it and it had a lot of Phoenix Suns fans in outrage a lot of fans were disappointed not really happy and like I mentioned Royce O'Neal is one of those guys in these offseason outlook he is a key free agent with the Suns having a ton of salary committed already being a second apron team having guys like Devin Booker, Kevin Durant, Bradley Beal making max contracts the only way for this team to really touch around the edges is to look at some of these guys are they going to move off of are they going to sign some more vet minimums what other market what are they going to do and the top of the list is definitely Royce O'Neal you want to look at this tweet here from the Phoenix Suns pod we can get a little bit more of an update as they explain the Suns offseason limitations as a second tax apron team and why re-signing Royce O'Neal is an absolute necessity and why people shouldn't be surprised if he gets a deal in the 13 to 15 million dollar range annually now my personal opinion i do believe that a guy like Royce O'Neal is worth the 13 to 15 million and then gerald in this you know video if you want to check it out on twitter you guys can obviously go take a peek but he broke down some key things for this phoenix sun squad in looking at Royce O'Neal now obviously the phoenix suns being a second apron team you see 13 to 15 million annually and you're thinking oh no I don't want to be strapped up to more money to this roster because we want to look at we can that this team we can see obviously Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, Bradley Beal paid up at the top and Nurkic is making 15 million dollars after that everybody else is making 8 million, 6 million, 5 million below that that's some difficult things you obviously see Royce O'Neale is going to get a little bit of an extended payday as well you might be freaking out and questioning some things but I think that it's going to be a-okay Royce O'Neale showed us in Brooklyn, he showed us with Utah that he can be a solid three and D wing on a winning championship squad and fitting into a Mike Budenholzer offense and scheme who definitely fits and benefits with better offensive players I'm sure Royce O'Neale is going to fit right in like a glove, be a solid three-point shooter and be an easy contributor with this squad by adding Royce O'Neale as well and signing him to a contract around 13 to 15 million dollars it also makes the contract tradable just in case Royce O'Neal doesn't turn out to be the type of player that the Suns want or a better kind of fit or scheme for Mike Budenholzer's offense or for the Suns direction and front office's direction to winning a championship does arise they could use Royce O'Neal's contract to trade in that and get a better deal something around that because them being in the second apron they obviously can't aggregate salaries so it allows them to have another tradable contract because as we do know when we look at their roster we can see they don't really have a lot of tradable contracts Nurkic is really the only other one besides uh Naz Reid which you have to attach draft capital might even have to attach draft capital to trade Yusuf Nurkic and as we know with the Phoenix Suns they don't have a lot of draft capital the first round picks only become eligible on draft night for 22nd overall pick this year in their 2031 they only have two more second round picks but after that there is no more draft capital nothing more to attach so even if you do get some bad contracts in the future you're not going to be able to shut off of them you're not going to be able to trade off of them because you don't even have that draft capital so ultimately when looking at this I think it is a smart decision to re-sign Royce O'Neal just in case as well if he doesn't fit out you can trade him for a guy who's making you know 12 or 11 mil and take even a little bit of a step back in the salary but like i mentioned looking at this Phoenix Suns outlook for the offseason 209 mil committed already what to watch is the ownership willing to continue to double down financially on the roster it's looking like so because they want to keep the big three intact and it's rumors are all saying that they're going to be wanting to pay Royce O'Neal which also gets to the second point the cost to retain Royce O'Neal could it be what Gerald is saying could it be around 13 to the 15 million range Could it be even a little bit more, around 16 mil, 17 mil? We'll have to wait and see. I do believe that the 13 to 15 mil range is fair for a guy in Royce O'Neal. Drop down below what you guys think. Do you guys think that that is a fair asking price? And then, obviously, finding value in the draft and free agency. We obviously know that they do have the 22 overall pick in this year's draft. But if you guys did miss our other videos and did not see, we have broken down how the Suns have, you know, already kind of said they want to bring back Drew Eubanks in their first offseason move. and talked about some aggressive trades because they are willing and wanting to trade this draft pick that is the 22 overall selection and their 2031st first overall pick so don't get attached to those picks ladies and gentlemen those will be attached and possibly some of these other free agents that have the player options guys like Eric Gordon Joshua Cogley Drew Eubanks they might get one of those guys to opt in to their deal and attach one of them to a contract or with a draft capital piece to get a better contract but this gets to the point of the video where i kind of break down is this smart is this the right idea for the Phoenix Suns should they bring back a guy in Royce O'Neal and i'm going to say 100% correct this is a brilliant idea like Gerald brought up and like we kind of talked about if it does not work out at least you have a tradable contract from the 13 to 15 billion dollar range to then get somebody else better that could be a better scheme fit or even a player to take in a little bit less of salary so you can drop down from the second apron because as you can see the tradable contracts here with this squad there are not a lot we'll have to see what they do ultimately with Royce O'Neal but again I think he's seemingly going to fit in with this squad being back with this team for a full season playing alongside Kevin Durant Bradley Beal Devin Booker I think that's a fine lineup getting them a rebounding center having Grayson Allen come off the bench and getting some key veteran defensive or role-playing pieces to help them out in the roles that they need rebounding playmaking setting up an offense I think will be huge for this Phoenix Suns team I'm all in for bringing back Royce O'Neal let me know what you guys think down below in the comment section and like I mentioned if you guys do enjoy the content check out the videos linked at the top hit the subscribe button and make sure to tune in to all videos I'm Bruce Velez I'll catch you guys in the next video go Phoenix Suns peace out everybody. Have a great one.