Suns on the verge of signing new assistant GM amid make-or-break offseason

Despite having Kevin Durant and Devin Booker, the Phoenix Suns are stuck in no-man's land with a high luxury tax bill and no realistic way to actual contender status. Suns' owner Mat Ishba has decided to make an outside hire to help them get closer to championship contender status.

According to John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports, Phoenix is hiring former Nets executive Matt Tellem to be the new Assistant General Manager.

As Gambadoro notes, Tellem is an "outside the box thinker who will help with cap/strategy/pro personnel. Really good at 3 team deals and manipulating the cap."

The Suns are set to pay $190 million this year, forcing the squad to be deep in the luxury tax. While Beal and Durant certainly deserve full max contracts, the squad has a couple of contracts that could be considered bad.

While Bradley Beal can still be a fringe All-Star if he stays healthy (which is becoming rarer and rarer as he gets older), the veteran is extremely overpaid and clearly not worth a max contract under the current rules of the CBA (which encourages teams to only have two max veterans and stay under the tax). Beal currently has three more years left of a five-year, $251-million contract.

Jusuf Nurkic is another veteran who is overpaid. Nurkic, who Phoenix traded for last season, isn't on a terrible deal but it's hard to find a franchise that will take on a center with a long-term deal that most likely can't start on a contending team. The veteran has three more years left on four-year, $71-million contract.

Can Matt Tellem help the Suns lower their tax bill and get them back into championship contention?

To be quite honest, it's hard to see a world where Tellem can find a franchise that will take on Bradley Beal's contract. Beal is about to turn 31 this offseason and still has at least two more years left on his deal (not including a player option that he will likely accept, as is his right). On top of this, the 3-time all-star has a no-trade clause in his contract, allowing him to control the destination he ends up going to.

Even though Nurkic's contract is not terrible, it will probably be challenging to get a Nurkic-related trade done as teams most likely don't want contracts of okay-ish veterans on long deals.

While the Suns might be unable to move any big contracts this offseason, Tellem might be able to get a deal that sneakily make them better. Yes, it might not be a championship contending roster, but the assistant GM has a shot at making this roster a bit better in the short term.