Midnight strike not likely for the Suns

Team still expected to be active in free agency

Thirty years ago, on July 1, Suns assistant coach Paul Westphal called Seattle forward Tom Chambers at 12:01 a.m. to try to convince the NBA’s first unrestricted free agent to take his talents to Phoenix.

Less than 24 hours later, Chambers was with the Suns.

In 2004, a Suns contingent that included chairman Jerry Colangelo, new owner Robert Sarver, coach Mike D’Antoni, Amar’e Stoudemire and Rex Chapman flew to Dallas to woo free agent point guard Steve Nash.

Within 24 hours, Nash agreed to a six-year deal worth more than $65 million.

Will the Suns make a similar splash when the NBA free agency period opens Saturday at 9 p.m. Arizona time? Probably not, but Phoenix is expected to be active and aggressive soon after the bell rings. Five questions, then, as the insanity is about to begin:

Does LeBron affect the Suns?

Well, let’s state the obvious: James isn’t coming to Phoenix, no matter how close he is to Vice President of Basketball Operations James Jones. The only way the Suns will be involved in the James saga is as a potential facilitator in a three-team trade. A trade, by the way, that’s less likely now that James has decided to become an unrestricted free agent rather than opt in with Cleveland.

But if James does force a sign-andtrade and the corresponding team needs to shed salaries to make the deal work, Phoenix has cap space to absorb a contract while collecting other assets. Beyond that, however, the Suns won’t have much say in James’ deci-

sion – other than to pray he doesn’t wind up with the Lakers.

Do Suns have max-contract space?

Not right now. Phoenix will have about $10 million in cap space after renouncing the rights to point guard Elfrid Payton and Alex Len, and if it sheds the rest of its non-guaranteed contracts – Alan Williams, Tyler Ulis, Davon Reed, Shaq Harrison – it will have approximately $18 million to spend.

But that’s not enough to sign a restricted free agent such as Orlando forward Aaron Gordon, who reportedly wants a max deal worth $29.6 million in 2018-19.

The only way the Suns can free up that much money is to either trade Tyson Chandler ($13.5 million next season) or Jared Dudley ($9.5 million). But with so few teams having cap room, is there even a market to take on either of those salaries?