The Suns Cut Haywood Highsmith Because Keeping Him Would Have Cost About $16 Million

The Phoenix Suns waived Haywood Highsmith on Saturday, and the reason was accounting, not evaluation. Highsmith re-signed with Phoenix in August on a non-guaranteed minimum-salary deal. He was going to be one of the cheapest players on the roster. Keeping him would have cost the Suns roughly $16 million in combined salary and luxury tax, per Hoops Rumors.

That is the clearest picture available of where this league’s economics have landed. A minimum contract turns into a $16 million line item because Phoenix is well over the tax line and carrying repeater penalties, which multiply every dollar of salary several times over.

So the Suns cut a six-year veteran they wanted, and they did it with 48 hours left before the October 19 roster deadline.

Highsmith Was Worth Keeping on Talent

The last time Highsmith was healthy, he was a legitimate rotation piece. In 2024-25 with Miami he played 74 games, started 42 of them, and averaged 6.5 points, 3.4 rebounds and 1.5 assists in 24.6 minutes while shooting 45.8 percent from the floor and 38.2 percent from three.

Then he had surgery on a torn meniscus in his right knee and played only seven games last season, finishing the year in Phoenix. He is exactly the kind of player a contender hunts for in February: long, versatile defensively, and a credible catch-and-shoot threat from the corner.

Phoenix will instead keep Jamaree Bouyea as its 14th man on a non-guaranteed contract and open the season with the 15th spot empty. The other 13 standard contracts on the roster are fully guaranteed, so there was no cheaper exit available.

The Repeater Tax Is Now Picking Rosters

This is the repeater tax working exactly as it was designed to work. Teams that spend big for long stretches get punished so hard that the back end of their roster becomes unaffordable. The Suns did not decide Highsmith was bad. They decided a 38 percent three-point shooter who can guard three positions was not worth eight figures.

I do not think that is a bad decision by Phoenix. I think it is an indictment of a system that lets a team’s own past spending dictate whether it can carry a healthy veteran on a minimum deal. The front office’s hands were tied before camp started.

The Suns are not done sorting the margins either. Duop Reath is on an Exhibit 10 contract and Phoenix has until Monday to convert it into a two-way deal, which would require cutting one of the current two-way players. The team has not confirmed any of that.

As for Highsmith, he should not be out of work long. Any team under the tax gets him for the same minimum salary that priced Phoenix out, and at that number the knee risk is worth taking. Expect a contender with payroll room to make the call this week.

The frustrating part for Suns fans is that the thin spots on this roster are now structural. Phoenix is going to need a defensive forward in March, it will have an open roster spot to fill, and it will be shopping in the same discount bin it just pushed Highsmith into.