We are the Phoenix suns no top tier free agent is coming here with that cap space your hoping to have.
Tyler Johnson is not good he’s a scrappy defensive player who offers nothing on offense.
Would you rather have Russell or Tyler Johnson and Josh Jackson cause that’s 25 million right there. Give me Russell everyday
I'm not trying to do anything special to create cap space, I'm just talking about not throwing away future cap space. And while I believe we'll be able to bring in top free agents if we start winning, even if we don't turn it around soon you still need cap space for the Randle type players that are available every season.
Your "would you rather have" scenario is irrelevant as Tyler is only getting that ridiculous money for 1 more season whereas you're talking about 4 years at the max for a somewhat better than average Russell (less than a star). I'm not sure he's even good enough to be the 3rd best player on a serious contender, you can't afford to pay that kind of player the max.
Jackson may well bust but I still believe there's a fair chance he'll be a much better player than Russell. And I never said Tyler Johnson was a good player, he's a slightly below average offensive player and a better than average defender. You need role players like him. He's grossly overpaid but he's still a decent player.