2018–19 Phoenix Suns season
During the 2018 NBA free agency period, the Suns also acquired some key players from the Houston Rockets the previous season with Trevor Ariza on July 1 and Ryan Anderson and rookie De'Anthony Melton nearly two months later on August 31.
But after failing to sign a starting-caliber point guard during free agency,[3] general manager Ryan McDonough was fired before the regular season began on October 8.
With the top pick of the 2018 NBA Draft, the Suns selected the Bahamian freshman center Deandre Ayton from the nearby University of Arizona.
In his sole season playing (and starting) in 35 games for Arizona, Ayton averaged 20.1 points (on .612 overall percentage and .343 three-point percentages), 11.6 rebounds, 1.9 blocks, 1.6 assists, and 0.6 steals under 33.5 minutes per game while also being named a consensus All-American First Team, the Pac-12's Player of the Year, the Pac-12's Freshman of the Year, being a member of the All-Pac-12 First Team, winning the Pac-12 Tournament's Most Outstanding Player Award, and winning the Karl Malone Award for being considered the best power forward of the NCAA, even though he projects more as a center entering the NBA.
Before June 26, the only players that were confirmed free agents were Oleksiy "Alex" Len (unrestricted) and Elfrid Payton (restricted, but the Suns had declared to not use their right of first refusal on him).
Two days later, the Suns waived Alan Williams' non-guaranteed deal and the exception rights on the two-way contracts of Alec Peters and Danuel House to create more salary cap space.
[16] Also on July 1, Suns' restricted free agent Elfrid Payton signed a one-year deal with the New Orleans Pelicans, his hometown team.
On July 7, the Suns' star shooting guard Devin Booker agreed to a five-year maximum contract extension of around $158.3 million to remain with the team.
Their first trade involved sending guard/forward Jared Dudley and their top-35 protected 2021 second-round pick to the Brooklyn Nets in exchange for power forward Darrell Arthur.
[18] Before the month of August concluded, the Suns traded both projected starting point guard Brandon Knight and third-year power forward Marquese Chriss to the Houston Rockets in exchange for new starting power forward Ryan Anderson and rookie point guard De'Anthony Melton, who was previously drafted by Houston.
[21] On November 4, center Tyson Chandler agreed to a buyout with the Suns, later playing the rest of the season with the Los Angeles Lakers.
On November 23, Isaiah Canaan agreed to leave the team via waiver, eventually playing briefly for the Milwaukee Bucks and Minnesota Timberwolves.
On December 7, Phoenix signed Northern Arizona Suns guard Jawun Evans as their second two-way contract, though he would be waived on March 23, 2019 to later play for the Oklahoma City Thunder.
A week after that, the Suns agreed to trade their biggest free agent acquisition, Trevor Ariza to the Washington Wizards for small forward Kelly Oubre Jr. and point guard Austin Rivers (who got waived the next day).
Fourteen days after the trade, the Suns signed former Dallas Mavericks power forward Ray Spalding to a 10-day contract before getting a two-year, partially guaranteed deal on March 3.
[23] The vice president of basketball operations at the time, James Jones, revealed that as many as 20 potential candidates were looked into for the head coach position between March and May 2018.
When Tyson Chandler and Isaiah Canaan were bought out and waived on November 3 and 28 respectively, the Suns opened more salary for the remainder of the season.
[40] The Suns were one of the six NBA teams announced to take part in a series of preseason contests with the National Basketball League and scheduled to play the New Zealand Breakers in Phoenix.
This preseason period was also without Devin Booker, as he was recovering from pinkie surgery at the time, with the intent on returning before the regular season began.
A week after the Suns started the pre-season, during which time they earned a 1–2 record, with their sole victory in a close game against the New Zealand Breakers, team owner Robert Sarver fired general manager Ryan McDonough and replaced them with both James Jones and Trevor Bukstein under interim general manager positions the morning of their penultimate preseason game against the Golden State Warriors.
The team ended the preseason with a 2–3 record, with Jones and Bukstein both taking over and sharing general manager duties for the rest of this season afterward.
Otherwise, the Suns were originally meant to keep that selection if it was inside that protection before a later trade with the Memphis Grizzlies (made under James Jones' guise as general manager going forward) resulted in it going to them in that event instead.
However, with the Suns' vastly improved success from this season until that point in time, their second-round pick went to Brooklyn instead of Memphis with no reservations whatsoever.
However, on January 31, 2018, a gruesome leg injury forced him out of commission for the rest of the season, which lead to his agreed waiver on February 8, though he would train in Phoenix to recover along the way.
However, despite not playing a single game for Phoenix at that time, Spalding was given a partially guaranteed deal on March 3, allowing him the full salary of $184,746 to finish off the season before potentially receiving $1,416,852 next year if it were agreed upon.
Williams was waived on January 2, 2019, but returned with a second two-way contract nine days later, which is where he'd play a few games with Brooklyn instead of the NBA G League affiliate Long Island Nets.
^ l: Both Brandon Knight and Marquese Chriss were initially traded to the Houston Rockets on August 31, 2018 in exchange for Ryan Anderson and rookie De'Anthony Melton.
