Former 20-ppg scorer not expected to return to Suns next season

The top-heavy Phoenix Suns may be taking another yet hit to their depth.

Longtime Phoenix sports host John Gambadoro said in a post to X this week that he does not expect veteran guard Eric Gordon to return to the Suns next season. Gordon has a $3.4 million player option for next season that he has until June 29 to decide on. As a result, Gambadoro seems to believe that Gordon will turn down the option and test free agency.

The 35-year-old Gordon is a former Sixth Man of the Year winner and was a 20-point-per-game scorer during his NBA peak. While he was not anywhere close to that with the Suns last season, he still averaged a respectable 11.0 points per game on 37.8 percent shooting from three off the bench for Phoenix (plus in a handful of starts when Bradley Beal was injured).

A departure by Gordon would sting for the Suns, who are a second-apron luxury tax team. That means they do not have access to the taxpayer’s mid-level exception and that they cannot take on more salary in trades than they give out (among other restrictions). As a result, the Suns would mainly be limited to minimum-salary veterans and draft picks to try to replicate the production of Gordon, who should still have a strong outside market.

On the bright side for Phoenix though, they did recently manage to extend the contract of another crucial rotation piece in Grayson Allen, who is seven years younger than Gordon and shot an NBA-leading 46.1 percent from 3 this season. There also seems to be an interesting guard possibility for the Suns in this year’s draft.