Suns trade former first-round pick to Spurs

Confirming Charania’s report, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link) says Phoenix will receive a future second-round pick in the swap. There are no details yet on whether that selection will be protected.

Payne, whose name had popped up in trade rumors as of late, appeared in 48 games for the Suns last season, averaging 10.3 points, 4.5 assists, and 2.2 rebounds in 20.2 minutes per night, with a shooting line of .415/.368/.766.

Following Phoenix’s trade of Chris Paul earlier in the offseason, Payne had his $6.5M salary for 2023-24 guaranteed and looked like he’d get a chance to vie for the final spot in the team’s starting lineup, alongside Devin Booker, Kevin Durant, Bradley Beal, and Deandre Ayton.

Instead, the Suns are offloading the veteran guard in order to open up a spot on the roster for Bol Bol, who has agreed to sign a one-year deal with the club.

As Yossi Gozlan of HoopsHype notes (via Twitter), the move from Payne to Bol will reduce Phoenix’s projected luxury tax penalty by approximately $18M and will generate a $6.5M trade exception for the team. Still, it’s a little odd to see the Suns essentially dumping Payne’s contract when it had only been partially guaranteed (for $2M) until June 29.

The Spurs, who will absorb Payne’s $6.5M salary into their cap room, will still have a little over $5M in space available once the deal is official, tweets Gozlan.

It remains to be seen whether San Antonio envisions Payne opening the 2023-24 season with the team—once Tre Jones and Sandro Mamukelashvili officially sign their agreed-upon deals and the Spurs acquire Payne, they’ll have 18 players on standard contracts. They’ll have to reduce that number to 15 ahead of opening night in October.