Suns' owner Mat Ishbia wants to keep free agents Grayson Allen, Royce O'Neale

Mat Ishbia had jokes Thursday standing side by side with NBA Commissioner Adam Silver after announcing the Phoenix Suns will host the 2027 NBA All-Star weekend at Footprint Center.

“I don’t know what the second tax apron is,” Ishbia said during a media scrum that left Silver smiling and raising his eyebrows. “What is that?”

Trust and believe Ishbia knows the Suns already are over the second tax apron and the roster limitations that brings in the new Collective Bargaining Agreement.

Ishbia sees Devin Booker’s four-year, $224-million supermax deal incoming next season along with Kevin Durant due $103 million in the last two years of his deal and Bradley Beal due $160 million in the last three years of his deal with a player option on his last year for a whopping $57.1 million.

The Suns team owner also knows how valuable Grayson Allen and Royce O’Neale are to this team. They’re both unrestricted free agents after this season, but Ishbia can see them playing for the Suns beyond that.

“Royce and Grayson are two great guys,” Ishbia said. “Royce is new to the organization, has done an amazing job, everything you can think of, and Grayson has been here all year. He’s been a phenomenal part of the team and the organization. We hope and expect to have both of those guys back along with keeping this core team together because we love our team and we’re going to compete at the highest level and hopefully in the playoffs very soon and see them all play together.”

The Suns acquired Allen and O’Neale in separate trades. Allen arrived from Milwaukee right before training camp in a three-team deal that sent Deandre Ayton to Portland and Damian Lillard to the Bucks. O’Neale came on board from Brooklyn in a three-team deal before the trade deadline.

Allen has had back-to-back games of hitting eight 3s as he went 8-of-12 from deep in Tuesday’s win at Denver and shot 8-of-12 in the first half of Thursday’s game against Toronto. Leading the NBA in 3-point shooting percentage at 47.1%, Allen has established himself as the fifth starter with the Big 3 of Booker, Durant, Beal and 7-footer Jusuf Nurkic.

O’Neale has helped raise the defensive level for the Suns as they are fifth in defensive rating in March. Averaging 10 points with the Suns, O’Neale is shooting 40% from 3 with the team and has been starting in place of the injured Devin Booker, who missed a third straight game Thursday with a right ankle sprain.

With the Suns having Bird rights to Allen and O’Neale, that makes it less challenging to re-sign them.

“We’re trying to win a championship and we’re going to try this year and we’re going to figure out how to do it next year and signing free agents is what it’s going to take,” Ishbia said. “Having someone’s Bird rights gives you an advantage to keep those players even if you’re in the luxury tax. We’re not frivolous with money and just spending money to spend money. What we’re trying to do is win a championship and build the best team possible.”

Understood, but being over the second tax apron does create several roster challenges after this season starting with teams being unable to use a trade exception generated by aggregating the salaries of multiple players. Teams also can’t include cash in a trade.

Silver later gave an interesting take on the second tax apron and its impact moving forward.

“It's a balance,” Silver said. “Mat, as you would expect and hope as a fan of this team, wants to do everything he possibly can to compete and from a league-wise basis, we want to create the best possible competition among the 30 teams.”

Have opinions about the current state of the Suns? Reach Suns Insider Duane Rankin at dmrankin@gannett.com or contact him at 480-787-1240. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at @DuaneRankin.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Suns look to bring back UFAs Grayson Allen and Royce O'Neale, says team owner