Josh Giddey is a fun idea but not the one the Suns need

Photo by Justin Casterline/Getty Images

I feel like I’m wandering Fry’s with a half-checked shopping list, muttering “vanilla oat milk creamer” under my breath as I try to find it. I’m shopping. I’m searching. I’m trying to get it right.

So are the Phoenix Suns.

With two open roster spots and a sliver of spending power, Phoenix is pushing its cart through the free agent aisle, scanning shelves for the right fit. Someone tough, useful, cheap, maybe even inspiring. They’re not just buying groceries. They’re trying to stock a pantry that fits

a recipe they haven’t quite perfected yet.

We’re all doing the same. Clicking through cap sheets, tossing out restricted free agent names, playing roster Tetris in our heads. It’s what makes July bearable, this collective delusion that the next name added might be the one that clicks.

Will it make them winners? Not yet. But maybe they’ll find a corner piece to the puzzle. Something to give this team shape.

As the roster stands today, one glaring void remains: point guard.

Outside of Colin Gillespie, a former two-way player who scrapped his way into a guaranteed deal, the Suns don’t have a true facilitator on the depth chart. No floor general. No table-setter. Which means, barring a late-summer curveball, it’ll be Point Booker running the show again.

That’s not a death sentence. Booker is more than capable. And there’s hope that Oso Ighodaro, with his high-post passing and feel for the game, can help unlock some offensive flow from unconventional spots when called upon. A sort of facilitation-by-committee approach. But let’s be real: it’s a gamble.

If the Suns do use one of their final roster spots on a point guard, it’s likely going to be for depth. A break-glass-in-case-of-injury guy, not a starter. And frankly, that’s the right move, at least in my humble opinion. Want proof? Just rewind.

Two seasons ago, when Booker and Beal were sharing backcourt duties without a traditional point guard in sight, the team actually defended better. The offense? Sure, it stalled in crunch time. That’s when playmaking — or lack thereof — reared its ugly head. But the team, under Frank Vogel’s defensive-minded eye, held up. They competed. They weren’t great, but they had grit. And that came, in part, from not sacrificing size and defensive versatility just to shoehorn a “true point guard” into the mix.

Reminder: If games ended after the third quarter for the 2023-24 Suns, the team would have had a 53-29 record. pic.twitter.com/OVrgr4EFwi

— John Voita, III (@DarthVoita) August 4, 2024

Last season? The Suns went out and got their “true point guard” in Tyus Jones. A traditional facilitator. A floor general. The kind of player fans had been clamoring for. And what happened? Point Book turned into Small Forward Book, and the defense, well…it shrank. A team that had a 113.7 defensive rating in 2023-24 (13th in the NBA) became a 117.7-rated defense (27th).

Jones, for all his steadiness and ball security, was a liability at the point of attack. Too small, too easily hunted. And once he was compromised, so was everyone else. The dominoes fell quickly. Rotations stretched thin, help came late, and suddenly the Suns were bleeding points in bunches.

The size disadvantage was glaring. What was supposed to bring structure instead brought imbalance. The team sacrificed defensive versatility in the name of traditionalism, and it cost them.

Yes, I’m oversimplifying the reasoning why. There were countless factors that led to that decline, but I believe it started with a team's poor roster construction and a small, non-versatile defense.

The lesson? Fit matters more than labels.

I bring it back to the shopping list. The players who are still out there trying to find a home. One name that I actually like the promise of? The 6’8” point guard from the land Down Under, Josh Giddey.

In four years in the NBA — three with the Thunder, last season with the Bulls — he’s averaged 14.1 points, 7.2 assists, and 8.1 rebounds. On the surface, given the fact that the Suns are in need of a point guard, it makes sense. You can pull a Pazik and talk yourself into it.

For me? It comes down to that word again. “Fit”.

There are plenty of reasons why I wouldn’t touch a Josh Giddey trade with a ten-foot kangaroo, but let’s start with the most basic one: the Bulls wouldn’t do it.

They just traded Lonzo Ball to Cleveland and brought in Isaac Okoro. Their point guard room now reads: Josh Giddey, Ayo Dosunmu, Tre Jones...maybe some Coby White in a pinch. That’s already a shaky group. So why on earth would they flip Giddey? Sure, they badly need wing shooting. If the Suns threw in Grayson Allen or Royce O’Neale, two guys who could actually help, and sweetened the pot with Nick Richards as a backup big (their backup bigs are Zach Collins and Jalen ‘Stix’ Smith), maybe they’d bite. But I still don’t buy it. It doesn’t make basketball sense.

But forget what the Bulls want for a second. The Suns shouldn’t want Giddey either.

Not just because of the fit, but because of the philosophy. This team is trying to build an identity around defense, toughness, and positional versatility. Giddey undercuts that instantly. He’s not quick laterally. He’s not strong at the point of attack. If he’s your starting point guard, then you’re not building around Booker’s strengths. You’re leaning on them. Again.

B-Ball Index

If you’ve got Booker at the one and Green at the two as your point-of-attack defenders, you can at least talk yourself into the idea that if they gamble or get beat, you’ve still got quality help behind them in Dillon Brooks and Ryan Dunn. But once Giddey enters the picture, it shifts things. Now it’s Booker and Brooks or Booker and Dunn playing behind a backcourt of Giddey and Green. And that puts you right back where you were last year: with Booker sliding to the three, where he’s undersized and outmatched defensively.

I like Josh Giddey. I really do. He’s got great size for a guard, can rebound, push the pace, and sees the floor like a seasoned vet. His playmaking instincts are real, and on a team that lacks natural facilitators, that holds value.

But I don’t like him for this team. Not for where the Suns are trying to go. Not with how they’re trying to build.

Giddey might thrive in a different situation, but Phoenix isn’t that place, not unless you’re willing to change the blueprint entirely. And let’s be honest, that blueprint is already half-soaked and taped together with hopes and hypotheticals.

The only scenario that might make some sense? A sign-and-trade that sends Jalen Green to Chicago and brings Giddey to Phoenix. Even then...are we sure he’s a better offensive weapon than Green? Does he align with the Suns’ emerging identity of attacking downhill, getting into the paint, and playing with force?

The Suns are deploying the Ben Simmons defense on Josh Giddey
pic.twitter.com/PSaAWjRKrf

— Barstool Sports (@barstoolsports) March 4, 2024

And then there’s the financial side of it.

$33 million invested in a player who still has glaring holes on the defensive end. Is that the business you want to be in? Oh wait...are the Suns already in that business with Jalen Green? That becomes the question.

If you asked me to choose between Giddey and Green, I’d lean toward Giddey. Not because he’s the better player. At this point in their careers, neither has justified a $33 million price tag. But because the fit makes more sense. Giddey would allow Devin Booker to shift back to his natural position at shooting guard, rebalancing the Suns’ backcourt and bringing a clearer identity to the lineup. One may not be worth the contract, but at least the other works.

Until those last two roster spots are filled, the speculation machine will keep humming. I’ll keep spinning the wheel, scribbling names onto the shopping list, and trying to see which puzzle pieces click and which ones send the whole thing tumbling off the table. That’s the fun part, until it’s not.

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