Hoops Rumors is checking in on the 2026 offseason for all 30 NBA teams, recapping the summer’s free agent signings, trades, draft picks, departures, and more. We’ll take a look at each team’s offseason moves and consider what might still be coming before the regular season begins. Today, we’re focusing on the Phoenix Suns.
Free agent signings
Collin Gillespie: Four years, $48,000,000. Fully guaranteed. Re-signed using Early Bird rights.
Mark Williams: Three years, $38,000,000. Fully guaranteed. Re-signed using Bird rights.
Jordan Goodwin: Three years, $19,000,000. Third-year player option. Re-signed using Early Bird rights.
Luke Kennard: Two years, $12,431,200. Second-year player option. Signed using taxpayer mid-level exception.
Haywood Highsmith: One year, minimum salary. Non-guaranteed (Exhibit 3). Re-signed using minimum salary exception.
Trades
Acquired the draft rights to Koa Peat (No. 30 pick) from the Mavericks in a four-team trade in exchange for the No. 47 pick in the 2026 draft (to Knicks), the Suns’ 2029 second-round pick (to Knicks), the Suns’ 2033 second-round pick (to Knicks), and cash ($2MM; to Knicks).
Acquired Miles Bridges, either the Hornets’, Jazz’s, Timberwolves’ (top-five protected), or Cavaliers’ 2029 first-round pick (whichever is least favorable), and either the Celtics’ or Magic’s 2027 second-round pick (whichever is least favorable) from the Hornets in exchange for Grayson Allen, Royce O’Neale, and the Suns’ 2033 first-round pick.
Draft picks
1-30: Koa Peat
Signed to rookie scale contract (four years, $15,031,531). First two years guaranteed. Third- and fourth-year team options.
Two-way signings
Koby Brea
One year, $91,000 partial guarantee (will increase to $339,441 at start of regular season).
Pat Spencer
One year, $91,000 partial guarantee (will increase to $339,441 at start of regular season).
Note: The Suns carried over CJ Huntley on a two-way contract from 2025/26.
Departed/unsigned free agents
Amir Coffey (Hapoel Tel Aviv – Israel)
Isaiah Livers (unsigned)
Other roster moves
Signed Dillon Brooks to a three-year, $72,999,999 veteran contract extension that begins in 2027/28. Fully guaranteed.
Exercised team option on Jamaree Bouyea ($2,584,539; non-guaranteed).
Salary cap situation
Note: Figures are rounded to one decimal place.
Operating over the first apron ($209MM) and below the second tax apron ($221.7MM).
Hard-capped at second apron.
Team salary: $216.2MM (tax/apron).
Above luxury tax line by $15.8MM; above first apron by $7.2MM; below hard cap by $5.5MM.
Two trade exceptions frozen/unavailable (largest worth $5MM).
The offseason so far
After trading away Kevin Durant and waiving Bradley Beal last offseason, the Suns were widely expected to take a step back in 2025/26 — their over/under ahead of the season was just 31.5 wins. But the new mix of players, a first-year head coach (Jordan Ott), and the lowered expectations seemed to rejuvenate the team, which won 45 games and earned a playoff spot in a competitive Western Conference.
Pleased by what they saw from last season’s group, the Suns elected to double down on their roster during the 2026 offseason. Before free agency even opened, Phoenix had already agreed to terms with its top three free agents, Collin Gillespie, Mark Williams, and Jordan Goodwin.
Gillespie, a former Villanova standout who went undrafted and began his career on a series of two-way deals, was a revelation in 2025/26, posting new career highs in points (12.7), assists (4.6), and rebounds (4.1) per game while continuing to shoot over 40% on three-pointers as his volume increased (7.2 attempts per game). I expected him to be one of the most popular targets for teams seeking a point guard, but he reached a four-year, $48MM agreement before even testing the market.
That was a fair price for Gillespie, and the Suns also brought back defensive-minded guard Goodwin at a reasonable rate, completing a three-year, $19MM deal with the journeyman on the heels of a breakout year. Goodwin has always been regarded as a strong point-of-attack defender, but he has shown over the past couple seasons with the Lakers and Suns that he can hold his own offensively too, averaging 7.8 points per game and making 37.3% of his three-point tries.
With those two free agent guards said to be Phoenix’s top priorities entering the summer, I wasn’t sure whether the team would push as hard to re-sign Williams. His injury history – which reared its head again down the stretch in ’25/26 – remains a concern, and the Suns have two other promising young big men in Khaman Maluach and Oso Ighodaro. Plus, it wasn’t as if the front office had invested significantly in Williams before this offseason — the two first-rounders the Suns gave up to acquire him in 2025 were a No. 29 overall pick and one that will be the “least favorable” of three teams’ selections.
But with Maluach still a work in progress and the Suns likely reluctant to rely too heavily on Ighodaro at the five, re-signing Williams made sense if the club could find a price point it liked. I was a little surprised that Phoenix was willing to give the 24-year-old a fully guaranteed three-year contract without any injury protection, but if Williams can continue playing 60 or more games per season like he did in his first year as a Sun, the club is unlikely to regret that $38MM investment.
After focusing early in the offseason on retaining key pieces from last season’s rotation, as well as veteran wing Haywood Highsmith, who could emerge as a more regular contributor if the knee issues that limited him to seven regular season games last season are behind him, the Suns made a series of additions to their roster as well.
I liked the decision to use a pair of second-round picks and cash to move up from No. 47 to No. 30 in order to nab Koa Peat, a promising local prospect whose stock took a bit of a hit during the pre-draft process due to questions about his shooting. The cost wasn’t too high to take a swing on a young player who has a real chance to outperform his draft slot.
The Suns also did well to nab sharpshooter Luke Kennard using the taxpayer mid-level exception. Kennard had earned between $9MM and 15MM in each of the past five seasons, and he looked like a good bet to be in that range again after showing off some play-making skills with the Lakers near the end of the season when Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves were out, then having a strong playoff run in the spring (11.5 PPG, .474 3PT%). Getting him on a $6.1MM salary for the 2026/27 season could be a steal for Phoenix.
The most controversial move of the Suns’ summer was their trade for Miles Bridges, the latest in a series of Michigan State alums who have joined the team since former Spartan Mat Ishbia became the controlling owner in 2023.
The cost to acquire Bridges was two solid rotation players (Grayson Allen and Royce O’Neale), both of whom averaged over 28 minutes per game last season, along with an unprotected 2033 first-round pick. Phoenix did a get a first-rounder of its own back in the swap, but it will be the least favorable of four teams’ picks, so it has much less upside than the far-off unprotected first-rounder the team surrendered in the trade.
Bridges has averaged at least 20 points per game in three of his past four seasons, has good positional size and toughness, is a strong rebounder, and can play-make a little. But he’s not an elite defender and has never been a great three-point shooter. He has also faced multiple allegations of domestic violence in the past, which meant that general manager Brian Gregory spent much of Bridges’ introductory press conference defending the forward’s character and justifying the deal from a non-basketball perspective.
The Suns wouldn’t have given up an unprotected first-round pick for a player on an expiring contract unless they intended to extend him, so it’s safe to say Bridges will receive a new deal sooner or later. He’ll be extension-eligible right up until June 30, 2027. He and the team may wait until certain restrictions expire on January 13, six months after the trade was finalized.
Phoenix did complete an extension this offseason with another one of its forwards, Dillon Brooks. The veteran has a reputation among opponents for being a pot-stirring nuisance, but it’s hard to deny the positive impact he has on each of his teams’ culture and compete level. The Grizzlies fell off drastically the year after letting Brooks walk in free agency, while Houston and Phoenix have since been buoyed by his presence.
After establishing a new career high as a scorer (20.2 PPG) and emerging as a locker room leader in his first year as a Sun, Brooks received a three-year, $73MM deal that will begin in 2027/28. He’ll turn 34 before that contract expires, so there’s no guarantee it’ll still look good by the time he’s earning $26MM+ in 2029/30, but the Suns will get their money’s worth as long as he keeps performing like he did last season.
Up next
Outside of a possible extension for Bridges, there may not be much offseason business left for the Suns. Currently, Phoenix is carrying 15 players on standard contracts and three on two-way deals, so the team may decide to simply take this group into the regular season.
Still, there’s some room for late-summer changes. Two-way deals are particularly malleable, and it’s unclear how committed the Suns are to CJ Huntley, whose contract carried over from 2025/26. Given that Pat Spencer and Koby Brea have signed their own two-way contracts more recently, Huntley may be the player most at risk if Phoenix identifies another target it wants to bring in on a two-way deal.
Additionally, while I’m not counting on the Suns to be active on the trade market before opening night, two of their 15 players on standard contracts have non-guaranteed salaries for 2026/27: Highsmith and Jamaree Bouyea. Given that Phoenix is operating well over the luxury tax line and will face repeater penalties this season, it’s possible the front office will decide to cut one of those players and enter the regular season with an open spot on its 15-man standard roster for the sake of flexibility.
In that scenario, I’d view Bouyea as the player who is more at risk. He earned a promotion from his two-way deal to the standard roster last season, but the Suns should have no shortage of backcourt options this fall, with Devin Booker, Jalen Green, Gillespie, Goodwin, and Kennard all in that mix. Waiving Bouyea’s $2.6MM non-guaranteed salary would reduce Phoenix’s projected tax bill from approximately $58.1MM to $43.9MM.