'Unreal': Phoenix Suns guard Grayson Allen appreciative of 4-year, $70M extension

Grayson Allen appreciated all the love on Monday, but nothing was official.

“When everyone was congratulating me, I was like, I need to sign this thing first,” Allen said.

Allen finally put pen to a four-year, $70-million extension with a player option Tuesday morning to stay with the Phoenix Suns.

“It felt great,” Allen said. “Very honored and blessed and very appreciative to be here in Phoenix. Very thankful for (team owner Mat Ishbia, CEO Josh Bartelstein and General Manager James Jones) believing in me and offering me an extension to be here. Very happy we got it done. I believe in everything we’re doing here. Very happy I’m going to be in Phoenix for a little longer.”

The Phoenix Suns could offer up to $75 million from late March up until June 30 due to having his Bird rights, but the two sides came to a lucrative financial agreement Allen still hasn’t fully processed.

“Probably won’t until the offseason or maybe until next season when it kicks in,” said Allen as he’s in the final year of a two-year, $18.7-million rookie extension he signed with the Milwaukee Bucks.

“I do feel like immensely grateful and blessed to be in this position where I get to be part of a great organization and a great city – and to have that kind of money is unreal.”

The NBA’s top 3-point shooter this season could’ve tested the free agent market as an unrestricted free agent, but Allen elected to sign an extension with the Suns before the playoffs.

“It was huge for us,” Jones said. “He said it before, he wanted to be here. He wants to be here. We want him here. It’s a perfect match. What we’re about, he’s about. We want to win at everything and Grayson said that not only do I want to win, I want to win here in Phoenix and I’ll show. I’ll take less to come here and be a part of something special and compete for a championship. Those are the type of players you bet on every time.”

Sixth-seeded Phoenix (49-33) begins its postseason run Saturday at third-seeded Minnesota (56-26) in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs.

“I’m glad we got it done before the playoffs,” Allen said. “There are no more conversations about it. We’re just all in on winning games.”

The Suns acquired Allen from Milwaukee in a three-team deal right before training camp that saw Blazers all-time leading scorer Damian Lillard join the Bucks and Deandre Ayton, the top overall pick for the Suns in 2018 out of Arizona, end up in Portland.

With Phoenix being his fourth team in six NBA seasons after coming out of Duke, Allen, 28, wasn’t a major name in the trade, but he earned a starting role and has become one of the Suns’ better players.

“He went out and grabbed it,” Suns coach Frank Vogel on Allen becoming the fifth starter alongside the Big 3 of Devin Booker, Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal – and 7-footer Jusuf Nurkic at center.

“He went out and grabbed the opportunity. Just coming in, knowing his skill set, put him in position to be the leading candidate. We started watching him play in the summer and how he’d fit with our group. It was a very easy choice.”

Starting all but one of the 75 games he’s played in his first year in Phoenix, Allen is averaging a career-high 13.2 points and shooting a career-best 46.1% from 3. The 6-foot-4 guard has served as a secondary playmaker on offense and competed on the defensive end.

“He’s a selfless teammate,” Jones said. “A guy that has played in big games, played big minutes for some really good teams. He’s played with the best and everywhere he’s been, he’s won and the best players on all those teams rave and gush about the type of player he is and more importantly, the type of teammate he is. I was excited that we got him and you can see why we love him.”

The $15.6 million due to Allen in the first year of the extension that kicks in next season is pushing the Suns' salary from $190 million to $206 million, but spiking the tax penalty from $41 million to $104 million, ESPN’s Bobby Marks broke down.

The Suns were already projected to be over the second tax apron next season, but that number has risen to $16.3 million.

Just another instance in which Suns team owner Mat Ishbia proves money is not an object when it comes to competing for an NBA title, something that still eludes this franchise.

“It's real money,” Jones said. “It's not taken lightly, but I don't how many times Mat has to say it and how many times he has to do it before people realize that he's serious about doing what it takes to win. It makes it a joy to work here and to be here and for guys to play here because they know when it comes down to it, we’re going to do whatever it takes to win.”

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: Grayson Allen makes 4-year deal with Phoenix Suns official