April 15 seems an appropriate day to say, “Suns owner Mat Ishbia does not mind paying the tax.”
Keeping a key part of Phoenix’s depth in place, the Suns and Grayson Allen have agreed to a four-year, $70 million extension, something reported by both ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and The Athletic’s Shams Charania. That’s a little below the max Allen could have gotten per year with an extension, but it is the largest contract of his career and gives the veteran a serious pay raise and some security.
Allen is coming off a breakout season in which he was a perfect floor-spacing fit for the Suns next to Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, and Bradley Beal. Allen averaged 13.5 points, 3.9 rebounds, and 3 assists a game, shooting a league-best 46.1% from 3. The Suns outscored opponents by 4.8 points per 100 possessions when the 28-year-old Allen was on the court.
Phoenix needed to work out this extension. Allen’s season earned him a massive raise and if he left in free agency the Suns did not have the cap room to replace him with anyone of similar quality.
That said, it pushes Phoenix and its owner Mat Ishbia even deeper into the luxury tax, and with them being over the second apron the Suns will be limited in ways they can build out the roster. With this extension, the Suns have an estimated $206 million payroll for the 2024-25 season, well over the estimated $171 luxury tax line and about $16.3 million over the second apron tax number (using Bobby Marks numbers from ESPN). That means a $104 million tax penalty on top of the payroll, putting the Suns at $310 million in salary and tax. For comparison, that is more than any team except the Warriors and Clippers are paying for salary and tax this season.
Being over the second apron also will make it more difficult for the Suns to add depth around their top-heavy roster. Teams over the second apron (including the Suns) cannot aggregate multiple contracts in a trade, cannot use a pre-existing trade exception, cannot take back more money than they send out in a trade, cannot send out cash in a trade, and once the season starts cannot bring in players on the buyout market who made more than the league average salary.
Ishbia went top-heavy with this roster, bringing in Beal to pair with Durant and Booker. We will see how that works out in these playoffs, where the Suns will start against the Timberwolves, a good matchup for Phoenix this season.
Allen will be part of that series and part of the Suns for the foreseeable future.
