Why the Suns waive-and-stretched Nassir Little and what it could mean

After an injury-riddled season in the Valley, Nassir Little‘s time with the Phoenix Suns has already come to an end.

According to The Athletic’s Shams Charania, the Suns will waive E.J. Liddell, which was an expected move to trim the roster to 15 fully-rostered players and reduce their luxury tax bill in the process. But they also decided to waive-and-stretch the remaining three years on Little’s contract, which felt a bit more surprising on the surface.

It probably shouldn’t have been, since back in July, PHNX Sports reported that this might be a possibility. At the time, signing Oso Ighodaro to his rookie contract and re-signing Josh Okogie would’ve put the roster at 15 fully-rostered players. If someone like Kyle Lowry had decided to ink a deal with Phoenix, the Suns would’ve considered waiving Little or David Roddy, according to a source.

The Suns later went out and added Tyus Jones, and Roddy was ultimately traded for Liddell, who will now be waived as expected. After all those moves, and with Liddell and Little being cut, the roster now stands at 14.The question is, why did Phoenix do this, and why did they make this decision in late August?

Why the Suns chose to move on from Nassir Little

As Charania mentioned, opening up a roster spot gives the Suns some flexibility for in-season trades or signings. Reading in between the lines, it doesn’t appear this move was made with any specific free agents in mind, but there’s plenty more we can infer from this decision.

For starters, it felt pretty obvious that Nassir Little was unlikely to crack Phoenix’s rotation. Although there’s definitely a need for plus-sized wings who can defend, Little struggled to prove himself in his first year in Phoenix. In his lone season with the Suns, he averaged 3.4 points and 1.7 rebounds in 10.2 minutes per game, all of which were career lows. He shot 46 percent overall but only made 30 percent of his 3s.

He only played 45 games, and while not all of those absences were due to health issues, nagging injuries continued to be the unfortunate story of Little’s career. Even in the limited doses where it felt like he was starting to put it together, a concussion or another injury would quickly rear its head to completely zap his momentum and prevent him from breaking through in Frank Vogel’s rotation.

There’s a new coaching staff in town now, but it’s safe to assume that if the front office was comfortable with cutting him loose, he had little chance of cracking Mike Budenholzer’s rotation — something that can be inferred from Charania’s follow-up tweet about how high the Suns are on rookies Ryan Dunn and Oso Ighodaro:

On a human level, it’s a tough break for Nassir Little, who will now enter free agency. He became a father in Phoenix, he obviously wanted to prove himself on a playoff-caliber team, and he expressed multiple times throughout the season how frustrating that never-ending onslaught of injuries was.

The good news is, he’ll still be paid his full $21.8 million over the next seven years by Phoenix. He’s now free to sign with another team willing to take a flier on the 24-year-old, and this gives him some time, at least, to latch on somewhere before the new season starts. It’s not ideal, since most rosters are full by this point, but it’s better than wasting away on the bench for most of the season and then being waived midseason.

Either way, after weeks of hearing about the Suns’ high opinions of their new rookies, it was obvious Little would struggle to earn minutes on this roster. Adding Tyus Jones and promising him a starting spot meant that both Grayson Allen and Royce O’Neale will come off the bench, and the writing was on the wall for Little at that point. His path to minutes was obstructed every which way, so rather than waste a roster spot, the Suns opted to free it up, maintain some flexibility, and give him a chance to land elsewhere.

For those wondering why Phoenix didn’t hold onto Little and try to flip his $6.75 million salary into a better depth piece with a trade, it’s highly unlikely the Suns settled on this path without trying to move him first. Opting to pay $3.1 million per year in dead money for the next seven seasons would be quite a choice without trying to trade him.

However, even when we explored trade options for Nassir Little, they were largely underwhelming — and that was with Phoenix attaching draft assets to get those hypothetical deals done. More than likely, the Suns explored the trade market for Little and were underwhelmed. Surrendering draft picks just to dump a middle-tier contract would be bad business for a team that just added a few second-rounders on draft night anyway.

To that end, it made more sense to waive-and-stretch the contract of a player who wasn’t going to play, didn’t have much trade value now, and wasn’t going to suddenly increase his trade value after months of not seeing the court.

But one question remains: Why waive-and-stretch Nassir Little now, in mid-August? Especially when we first got wind this might happen back in July, when the free-agency market was a bit more active? To answer that question, we have to look at the financial side of the equation.

Why Nassir Little was waive-and-stretched now

For those unfamiliar with the league’s CBA, the timing of this move initially came off as curious. Why waive a guy with three years left on his contract, when he could potentially be used as a trade piece later in the season? And why do it in mid-August, rather than weeks ago when the free-agency pool was a little deeper?

Well, according to NBA rules, the stretch provision that the Suns used on Little changes a bit if it’s enacted before Aug. 31. When a player is waive-and-stretched before that deadline, the team is obligated to pay the remaining money on his contract over twice the number of remaining years on their contract, plus one. In Little’s case, with three years and $21.8 million left on his deal, that means he’s owed $3.1 million per year over the next seven years:

• 2024-25 salary: $3.1 million
• 2025-26 salary: $3.1 million
• 2026-27 salary: $3.1 million
• 2027-28 salary: $3.1 million
• 2028-29 salary: $3.1 million
• 2029-30 salary: $3.1 million
• 2030-31 salary: $3.1 million

This is called “dead money,” but the Suns will have $3.1 million on their salary cap sheet for Little’s contract for every season from now until 2030-31 (even if he signs with a new team).

Had the Suns waited until after Sept. 1 to waive Little, however, he would’ve been owed his full salary for the 2024-25 season ($6.75 million), and then the last two years left on his contract would’ve been spread over twice the number of remaining years on his deal, plus one (a.k.a. $15 million spread over the following five years):

• 2024-25 salary: $6.75 million
• 2025-26 salary: $3 million
• 2026-27 salary: $3 million
• 2027-28 salary: $3 million
• 2028-29 salary: $3 million
• 2029-30 salary: $3 million

Either way, a waive-and-stretch would’ve left Phoenix paying Little through at least 2029-30. By waiving him before Aug. 31, the Suns are on the hook for an extra season, but they’ve reduced Little’s cap figure for this season from $6.75 million to $3.1 million. That move alone comes with significant luxury tax savings for this year:

It also comes with significant luxury tax savings over the next couple of seasons, which is helpful for a team so far beyond the second tax apron:

Looking ahead, this decision will allow the Suns to make an in-season move to address their remaining roster spot.

It could be a player who gets bought out during the season and signs on as a free agent, or it could be a trade where Phoenix sends out one player and gets two in return. They’d now be able to absorb both of those players without having to cut anyone, and the Suns hired front office executive Matt Tellem for these exact kinds of maneuvers. Or, if Jalen Bridges, Collin Gillespie or TyTy Washington prove themselves on a two-way contract, the Suns could fill that last roster spot internally.

Either way, the Suns didn’t envision Nassir Little being part of the rotation under Mike Budenholzer. Rather than waste his time or their own time, they cut him loose now, opened up a roster spot, and shaved some money off their luxury tax bill by acting before the Aug. 31 deadline.