Suns' latest move leaves them with unlikely point guard

After trading 12-time All-Star Chris Paul to the Washington Wizards for Bradley Beal, the Suns traded his backup, Cameron Payne, to the San Antonio Spurs, leaving them with a hole at point guard. They've decided that their collection of ball handlers make a traditional point guard unnecessary.

Beal will be the nominal point guard, though Phoenix expects Devin Booker, Kevin Durant, Eric Gordon and Jordon Goodwin to all share responsibilities for distributing the ball. They're planning to use Jordan Goodwin, obtained in the Beal trade, as their backup point guard — he averaged 2.7 assists in 18 minutes per game for the Wizards last season.

Still, the primary motivation for Phoenix was to save money. While Payne's $6.5M salary was only guaranteed for $2M, Phoenix saved $10M by trading him instead of releasing him, as well as $30M in salary and luxury taxes overall.

It also opened up a roster spot, which the Suns used to add the intriguing Bol Bol. The 23-year-old Bol is a 7-foot-2 forward with a variety of skills, but not much consistency. 

He shot 38.8% from three-point range between October and January for the Orlando Magic – then 8.7% for the rest of the season. He also showed flashes of brilliance early.

However, after averaging one assist and 1.6 turnovers per game, Bol probably isn't the Suns solution at point guard. Meanwhile, Beal averaged 5.4 assists last year and Booker averaged 5.5, a combination that's more than Paul's 8.9 last year. Of course, they also combined for 5.6 turnovers, far more than Paul's 1.9.

The danger in trading Payne is not just that Phoenix becomes thin at the one. It's that without his salary, Phoenix may have trouble making trades. They have four players making the maximum — and every other player making the minimum, which means matching salaries will be very challenging.

But just like determining who will run the offense in crunch time, the Suns have decided they'll figure it out later.