The Suns just signed the ideal Boston Celtics' free agent fit

The Boston Celtics missed out on a free agent point guard no one even knew they could've had on July 27 when the Phoenix Suns and Tyus Jones reached an agreement for a one-year, $3.3 million contract.

Jones was such a bargain for the Suns that ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski couldn't hide his enthusiasm for the deal in his reporting.

"Jones is a massive addition for the Suns, who struggled without a true point guard last season," Woj prefaced before saying, "Jones, who averaged 12.0 points and 7.3 assists for the Washington Wizards in 2023-24, will get a chance to impact a Western Conference contender and potentially return to a more financially flush free agent market next summer.

"The cap-strapped Suns had only the veterans minimum available to offer Jones."

Boston is also cash-strapped. For years to come. But a veteran's minimum deal for a productive facilitator, something the C's second unit doesn't need, per se, but can absolutely benefit from, could've been the exact deal to add to a mix that otherwise only brought in No. 30 overall pick Baylor Scheierman. Whether or not Oshae Brissett or Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk return from the Banner 18 team remains to be seen.

Tyus Jones a perfect signing for the Phoenix Suns

Jones immediately gives the Suns a starting-caliber point guard, though the odds are high that he'll spell Devin Booker and Bradley Beal at the 1 since playing one of those two at small forward would make Phoenix's starting five criminally undermanned defensively.

Certainly, adding Jones doesn't propel the Suns into the upper echelon of the Western Conference; where the Denver Nuggets, OKC Thunder, and Minnesota Timberwolves reside. But it does solve a lot of lineup problems Phoenix gave themselves when they swapped out Chris Paul for Beal.

Boston could, and is predicted to, repeat but if they don't, it'll be hard not to think about how a Jones signing would've helped.

And that it was even possible to begin with.