Next Season The Phoenix Suns Will Pay Just Four Players A Ridiculous Amount Of Money
ByJoey Heldon June 28, 2023inArticles›Sports News
Earlier this year, the Phoenix Suns shook up the NBA with a massive trade to acquire Kevin Durant . The move didn’t result in postseason success, as the team never fully gelled and lost to the eventual champion Denver Nuggets in the second round.
Now, the Suns are back at it again. They traded Chris Paul , Landry Shamet, multiple second-round picks and a pick swap to the Washington Wizards in exchange for Bradley Beal , Isaiah Todd, and Jordan Goodwin.
The Suns, a team that reached the NBA Finals in 2021, are clearly trying to win a championship before their window closes. Beal joins Durant, Devin Booker , and Deandre Ayton to create an impressive group of stars. Although it’s going to cost the Suns a LOT of money to field this roster.
Bradley Beal (L) shooting over Devin Booker. (Patrick Smith/Getty Images)
All four players are on max contracts. This upcoming season, the Suns will owe Durant (about $47.6 million), Beal (about $46.7 million), Booker (about $36 million), and Ayton (about $32.4 million). All together, next season these four will earn a collective…
$163 million
Adding to the complexity, the upcoming collective bargaining agreement will impose strict penalties on teams that go over the second apron of the luxury tax. That threshold currently sits at $179.5 million. To avoid going past that number, the Suns will have to figure out a way to split about $16.5 million between ten players.
This isn’t a one-year issue, either. Beal still has $207 million and four years remaining on his contract. Durant has about $149.5 million over three seasons, plus a few extra million in likely incentives. Ayton will make a shade over $102 million in the next three seasons. Booker is in the final year of his deal, but at just 27 years old and still in his prime, the Suns will try to do all they can to retain him.
It’s almost a given that most of the Suns’ bench will consist of players on veteran minimum contracts. The only other players currently under contract are backup guard Cameron Paine; Ish Wainright, who averaged about 15 minutes per game last season; Goodwin, who was productive with the Wizards; and Todd, who’s played 135 minutes total in two seasons.
With the free agency period kicking off on June 30, the Suns probably have more moves to make. If it leads to the first championship in franchise history, all the spending will be worth it.
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The Phoenix Suns Will Pay Devin Booker A Record-Setting $75 Million Per Year For The Next Two Seasons
ByJoey Heldon July 8, 2025inArticles›Sports News
The Phoenix Suns took a 2-0 lead in the 2021 NBA Finals. They were two wins away from the franchise’s first-ever championship—and that’s when things fell apart. Phoenix promptly lost the next four games to the Milwaukee Bucks. The Suns won 64 games the following season. However, they lost in the semifinals to the Dallas Mavericks and haven’t been the same since, including getting swept in the first round in 2023-24 and missing the playoffs entirely last season.
Along the way, the Suns swapped out key pieces in Chris Paul and Mikal Bridges for Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal , and then turned around and sent Durant to the Houston Rockets this offseason. Through all of these ups and downs, Devin Booker has remained a constant presence within the Suns organization.
The team is rewarding him with a two-year, $150 million contract extension. And in case math isn’t your strong suit, that works out to a mind-numbing $75 million per season .
That sets the record for the highest annual salary in NBA history, topping a record that Shai Gilgeous-Alexander set just last week with his 4-year, $285 million deal . Shai’s contract equates to $71.25 million per season. Furthermore, Devin’s contract now ranks as the sixth-largest sports contract in history based on average annual earnings.
The Largest Sports Contracts by Average Annual Earnings
| Rank | Athlete | Contract | Sport | Average Annual Salary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cristiano Ronaldo (2025) | 2 years, $620 million (Al Nassr) | Soccer | $310 million |
| 2 | Karim Benzema (2023) | 2 years, $436 million (Al-Ittihad) | Soccer | $218 million |
| 3 | Cristiano Ronaldo (2022) | 2.5 years, $536 million (Al Nassr) | Soccer | $214.5 million |
| 4 | Lionel Messi (2017–2021) | 4 years, $674 million (FC Barcelona) | Soccer | $168.5 million |
| 5 | Kylian Mbappé (2022) | 3 years, $681 million (PSG) | Soccer | $227 million* |
| 6 | Devin Booker (2025) | 2 years, $150 million (Suns) | Basketball | $75 million |
| 7 | Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (2025) | 4 years, $285 million (Thunder) | Basketball | $71.25 million |
| 8 | Shohei Ohtani (2023) | 10 years, $700 million (Dodgers)** | Baseball | $70 million |
| 9 | Canelo Álvarez (2018) | 5 years, $365 million (DAZN) | Boxing | $73 million |
| 10 | Jayson Tatum (2024) | 5 years, $314 million (Celtics) | Basketball | $62.8 million |
| 11 | Jaylen Brown (2023) | 5 years, $303.7 million (Celtics) | Basketball | $60.7 million |
Christian Petersen/Getty Images
The Athletic’s John Hollinger noted that the timing of such an extension is perplexing, given the circumstances. “I’m wondering what the hurry is,” he wrote. “Booker is signed for three more seasons with no options, so he’s not a flight risk.”
It appears the Suns are stuck between going for a full-on rebuild and trying to compete. The problem is that the Western Conference is absolutely stacked with talent. At present, the Suns’ roster feels less competitive than it was last year, and that team didn’t even reach the postseason.
This new extension, which doesn’t even kick in until the 2028-29 season, now means the Suns owe their star more than $321.2 million over the next five years. Tacking on an extra two seasons and $150 million only makes Booker harder to trade.
Concurrently, the Suns are also looking to buy out the remainder of Beal’s contract. He has one of the rare no-trade clauses left in the league; unlike Durant, who at least returned some assets to Phoenix, the Suns seem content to let Beal walk and pay him to go away.
Maybe Booker’s deal is simply a gesture of good faith. He’s been a pillar in the community since Phoenix selected him in 2015, and the Suns often don’t score a lot of big-time free agents (both Durant and Beal were acquired via trade).
It’s certainly a gamble that the Suns will turn it around. For now, they still believe Booker can help them get there—and they’re willing to spend the money to make it happen.
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