Suns News: 2026 Offseason Edition

[virtual9mm]

The Suns have reported waived Haywood Highsmith, freeing up a roster spot.

Any thoughts what they might have planned for that roster spot? I liked Highsmith a lot as an end of the bench guy.

11 million savings in Luxury Tax, supposedly. All of a sudden, this matters.

Supposedly $1 million of his $3 million salary was guaranteed. So they're saving $10 by waiving him, $11 million of somebody clams him. I think it's actually good for Highsmith, he can sign with someone like Miami for the minimum, make about the same amount of money and get more playing time.

Think you are right. Waived him early so he could grab a bigger role for someone during training camp.

[Shabazz]

Definitely possible that this was us doing him a favor and another team had interest in making a waiver claim on him and signaled that to his agent.

[Superbone]

[JJ Slim]

Nah, he's still worth billions, I don't think anything changes on his team front.

I hope you're right. I like our direction since the KD fiasco for the most part (I'm on record saying I wouldn't have pursued Bridges.) But I do know it really bothers me when my net worth dips even just 10% even though it shouldn't. I should be prepared for 50% market drops. 80%?! That would freak me the f out.

I was just rereading through this today and I remember when I was down over 80%, almost 90% at one point a few years ago. Heck just this past May I lost over a half million in one day. Just another day lol! But as O_Gardino said it was only paper losses.

[AmareIsGod]

Nah, he's still worth billions, I don't think anything changes on his team front.

I hope you're right. I like our direction since the KD fiasco for the most part (I'm on record saying I wouldn't have pursued Bridges.) But I do know it really bothers me when my net worth dips even just 10% even though it shouldn't. I should be prepared for 50% market drops. 80%?! That would freak me the f out.

I was just rereading through this today and I remember when I was down over 80%, almost 90% at one point a few years ago. Heck just this past May I lost over a half million in one day. Just another day lol! But as O_Gardino said it was only paper losses.

My entire 401k portfolio is barely $350k (I started late). Good to see you've been saving and planning for the future. Half a million lost in a day with your response says you're doing a lot of good things financially!

[JJ Slim]

Nah, he's still worth billions, I don't think anything changes on his team front.

I hope you're right. I like our direction since the KD fiasco for the most part (I'm on record saying I wouldn't have pursued Bridges.) But I do know it really bothers me when my net worth dips even just 10% even though it shouldn't. I should be prepared for 50% market drops. 80%?! That would freak me the f out.

I was just rereading through this today and I remember when I was down over 80%, almost 90% at one point a few years ago. Heck just this past May I lost over a half million in one day. Just another day lol! But as O_Gardino said it was only paper losses.

My entire 401k portfolio is barely $350k (I started late). Good to see you've been saving and planning for the future. Half a million lost in a day with your response says you're doing a lot of good things financially!

I started late too. I figured my entire retirement was going to be funded by SS. And just a two or three years ago I had less than you have in your 401k. I made some highly risky choices and fortunately it has paid off. I tell our kids to start now even with a little bit so they don't have to wonder about their future.

[Superbone]

Nah, he's still worth billions, I don't think anything changes on his team front.

I hope you're right. I like our direction since the KD fiasco for the most part (I'm on record saying I wouldn't have pursued Bridges.) But I do know it really bothers me when my net worth dips even just 10% even though it shouldn't. I should be prepared for 50% market drops. 80%?! That would freak me the f out.

I was just rereading through this today and I remember when I was down over 80%, almost 90% at one point a few years ago. Heck just this past May I lost over a half million in one day. Just another day lol! But as O_Gardino said it was only paper losses.

My entire 401k portfolio is barely $350k (I started late). Good to see you've been saving and planning for the future. Half a million lost in a day with your response says you're doing a lot of good things financially!

I started late too. I figured my entire retirement was going to be funded by SS. And just a two or three years ago I had less than you have in your 401k. I made some highly risky choices and fortunately it has paid off. I tell our kids to start now even with a little bit so they don't have to wonder about their future.

Wow, man. That's impressive. Half a million in a day?! You've definitely got a different style than me. I try to be in mostly index funds but sometimes I can't help myself. I've taken a big bath in the past on a gamble. SpaceX is currently the only individual stock I'm holding. Now that your risky choices paid off, have you backed off on the aggressiveness?

[Superbone]

Nah, he's still worth billions, I don't think anything changes on his team front.

I hope you're right. I like our direction since the KD fiasco for the most part (I'm on record saying I wouldn't have pursued Bridges.) But I do know it really bothers me when my net worth dips even just 10% even though it shouldn't. I should be prepared for 50% market drops. 80%?! That would freak me the f out.

I was just rereading through this today and I remember when I was down over 80%, almost 90% at one point a few years ago. Heck just this past May I lost over a half million in one day. Just another day lol! But as O_Gardino said it was only paper losses.

My entire 401k portfolio is barely $350k (I started late). Good to see you've been saving and planning for the future. Half a million lost in a day with your response says you're doing a lot of good things financially!

Keep at it, man. You'll be surprised at how fast that $350k will start snowballing.

[Superbone]

Wow.

Stat Defender @statdefender

Best DFG% In The Paint (< 6 Feet) For The 2025-26 NBA Regular Season (Min. 100 DFGA) :

1. Khaman Maluach — 44.3%
2. Clint Capela — 46.3%
3. Chet Holmgren — 48.9%
4. Trayce Jackson-Davis — 49.2%
5. Isaiah Stewart — 49.6%
6. Isaiah Hartenstein — 49.7%
7. Robert Williams III — 50.0%
8. Giannis Antetokounmpo — 50.4%
8. Joan Beringer — 50.4%
10. Zeke Nnaji — 51.

[Superbone]

You all can relax now regarding Ishbia's finances. FLEX says so.

[The Bobster]

My entire 401k portfolio is barely $350k (I started late). Good to see you've been saving and planning for the future. Half a million lost in a day with your response says you're doing a lot of good things financially!

I started with the City of Phoenix so long ago (1980) that I retired with a pension making more than my monthly salary after sticking with them for 43 years. In 2013 I believe it was, they changed the new employees over to 401k's. They also had to pay in 13% of their earnings every month and I was grandfathered in at 5%. Add in my Social Security and I'm making about 25% more than I was working. (Once I crunched the numbers a couple years ago I couldn't retire fast enough) I was really fortunate because I didn't really start thinking about my retirement until I had been with the city for a few years and backed into a better situation than I would have gotten otherwise.

[The Bobster]

Getting back to the release of Highsmith, I think there's two possibilities from the Suns perspective - re-signing Highsmith for the veteran after he clears waivers which would still mean some tax savings or signing another player for the veteran minimum that they hope can shore up a weakness in the roster.

I read recently that Western Conference team has expressed interest in Ben Simmons, and I've also seen articles articles speculating that the Suns would be one of the teams that would be a logical landing spot for him. Now, IF HE's HEALTHY, and he signs a non-guaranteed contract he might be worth taking a chance on. He'd fill three roles that the Suns have been needing help at the last few years - playmaking, defense and rebounding. I can certainly see where people would take a hard pass, but then again IF HE'S HEALTHY he might be worth taking a chance as long as there's no serious financial commitment.

[Mori Chu]

Ben Simmons remains one of the great enigmas in NBA history to me. He looked really promising and exciting for his first four NBA seasons. Look at his Basketball Reference page below. He debuts in 2017-18 and averages 15.8 / 8.1 / 8.2 as a rookie, amazing numbers, and stays near those marks with slight improvement in some areas for the first 4 years of his career. He wins ROTY, he goes on to get DPOY votes, the guy looks like he'll be an NBA star.

Then he misses all of 2021-22 with a bad back injury. He comes back in 2022-23 and he's completely lost his game. Averages 6.9 points and it's downhill from there. His last NBA experience was 2024-25 where he averaged 2.9 ppg. The guy just cratered. And beyond the stats, the eye test just stunk for this guy. He was unwilling to shoot, looked like he didn't give a shit, and he milked multiple NBA franchises out of tens of millions of dollars in wasted contracts.

I liked the guy's game but he sure seemed like he wasn't trying hard and didn't really want to play basketball any more. Do we think he's changed? Obviously if he could get back to being anything like his younger self, he'd be a very hot NBA commodity. But I'm not very sold by these videos where he shoots in an empty gym or dribbles past losers who aren't close to NBA-caliber. I'm not opposed to bringing him in on a minimum deal since we badly need a distributor. But I'm pretty skeptical about whether he has anything left.

https://www.basketball-reference.com/pl ... obe01.html

[The Bobster]

I wouldn't want to make any sort of financial commitment to him, but he may be worth a look. Even after his back injury he was still a good passer and rebounder, but his offense went south and he's got to be health if he's going to make the same sort of impact defensively. Even without the offense he'd be a solid rotation player IF HE'S HEALTHY. He's going to need to earn whatever he gets.

[Superbone]

Getting back to the release of Highsmith, I think there's two possibilities from the Suns perspective - re-signing Highsmith for the veteran after he clears waivers which would still mean some tax savings or signing another player for the veteran minimum that they hope can shore up a weakness in the roster.

I read recently that Western Conference team has expressed interest in Ben Simmons, and I've also seen articles articles speculating that the Suns would be one of the teams that would be a logical landing spot for him. Now, IF HE's HEALTHY, and he signs a non-guaranteed contract he might be worth taking a chance on. He'd fill three roles that the Suns have been needing help at the last few years - playmaking, defense and rebounding. I can certainly see where people would take a hard pass, but then again IF HE'S HEALTHY he might be worth taking a chance as long as there's no serious financial commitment.

Are we talking physically or mentally?

[The Bobster]

Getting back to the release of Highsmith, I think there's two possibilities from the Suns perspective - re-signing Highsmith for the veteran after he clears waivers which would still mean some tax savings or signing another player for the veteran minimum that they hope can shore up a weakness in the roster.

I read recently that Western Conference team has expressed interest in Ben Simmons, and I've also seen articles articles speculating that the Suns would be one of the teams that would be a logical landing spot for him. Now, IF HE's HEALTHY, and he signs a non-guaranteed contract he might be worth taking a chance on. He'd fill three roles that the Suns have been needing help at the last few years - playmaking, defense and rebounding. I can certainly see where people would take a hard pass, but then again IF HE'S HEALTHY he might be worth taking a chance as long as there's no serious financial commitment.

Are we talking physically or mentally?

A little from column A, a little from column B.

[Mori Chu]

I read recently that Western Conference team has expressed interest in Ben Simmons, and I've also seen articles articles speculating that the Suns would be one of the teams that would be a logical landing spot for him. Now, IF HE's HEALTHY, and ...

Are we talking physically or mentally?

Yes.

[O_Gardino]

Oso is better than Simmons at this point.

[Split T]

Simmons broke in that playoff series against Atlanta(pretty sure it was them). He lost all confidence in scoring at all

[Split T]

Also, I believe Highsmith had 1 million guaranteed, so I don’t think we save any money by waiving him and bringing him back. More likely we go into the season with 14 players and convert Pat Spencer at the very end.