Blake Griffin, Paul Millsap to meet with Suns, which makes little sense for them

Phoenix shouldn’t be signing aging or injured stars who don’t fit their timeline at all.

The Phoenix Suns — yet again — are attempting to become a free agency destination. The team will meet with both Blake Griffin and Paul Millsap on Saturday, the opening day of free agency, according to Arizona Sports’ John Gambadoro. The Los Angeles Times’ Brad Turner also confirmed that the Suns will meet with Griffin.

This isn’t the first time Phoenix has attempted to barge into the free agency market. Notably in 2015, they were one of LaMarcus Aldridge’s final two choices, although Aldridge ended up picking the Spurs. Last season, the Suns were reportedly in trade talks with the Atlanta Hawks about Millsap, although nothing ultimately came of that.

The Suns could offer Griffin a four-year max contract worth about $130 million, which would start at approximately $31 million. (Millsap would be slightly more expensive, starting at $35 million per season at the max.) Right now, Phoenix could just barely sign Griffin if they decline and renounce all of their free agents — that would give them about $33 million in cap space.

Why it makes sense for the Suns to pursue Griffin or Millsap.

Obviously, Griffin or Millsap would help jumpstart the Suns into a more serious playoff push. Both are really good veteran players, although Griffin has injury worries and Millsap is getting older. Having a really good player like those two guys would be a great help for Phoenix’s young players.

Other than that, though, I’m failing to see why Phoenix is attempting to do this.

Why this doesn’t make any sense at all.

The Suns are extremely young. Sure, they have 34-year-olds Tyson Chandler and Leandro Barbosa on the roster, and sure, Eric Bledsoe is 27 now. None of those players, or 31-year-old Jared Dudley, are really part of the Suns’ future, though. They’re quality veterans who were all virtually shut down in the season’s finals month so Phoenix could lose even more games than they were losing.

Phoenix’s timeline is still a long ways out. Devin Booker is 20, and so is newly drafted Josh Jackson — ideally, those two players are their core. Tyler Ulis is 21. Dragan Bender and Marquese Chriss, two first rounders selected last year, are both still 19. Sure, Booker is developing quickly, even dropping a (somewhat flukey) 70-point game last season, but everyone that was named in this paragraph still needs development time.

Signing Griffin or Millsap won’t make the Suns a playoff lock. Signing Griffin AND Millsap, if the Suns could even clear enough space, would probably not make them anything more than a low-seeded playoff team. The Western Conference is “wide open” after the top three seeds in Golden State, San Antonio, and Houston. But no team in the Western Conference is anywhere near those top three right now, and these moves won’t get Phoenix anywhere close to the upper echelon.

Maybe there are ulterior motives for the Suns to pursue meetings with these two players. If Phoenix just wants to keep their name fresh as a team who is a threat to sign free agents, then maybe this isn’t nearly so complicated. But signing either player would hurt the Suns’ future with marginal (or arguably negative) returns in the present.

Why this doesn’t make any sense for Millsap or Griffin.

Basically, all the same reasons listed above, except from the player’s perspective. Griffin is an eight-year veteran and Millsap has spent 11 season in the league. At this point, I don’t think either player wants to be seriously trying to win while running around with 19 year olds. In five years, sure, but right now it would be a waste of their prime, however much of that they have left.

The only way this might make sense is if Millsap or Griffin want max contracts and can’t find them anywhere else. But that would be an extreme example of money over situation, all while Phoenix really shouldn’t even be offering them those contracts in the first place.

What are the chances this happens?

There’s a 0.5 of 10 chance this happens, unless there’s some grand scheme brewing in Phoenix that I just don’t know anything about.