According to Marc Stein, the Phoenix Suns preferred not bringing back Chris Paul due to his leadership and methods of speaking to the locker room and coaching staff.

Phoenix feared new head coach Jordan Ott wouldn’t mesh well with the veteran point guard. At one point, they wanted Marcus Smart over Paul.

Obviously, Phoenix did not land either player and decided to sign players like Jordan Goodwin and Jared Butler to fill their roster.

Despite Devin Booker wanting the 40-year-old to come back to the organization, the Suns had no intentions of fulfilling his wish. It appears Mat Ishbia and others wanted to do what was best for the coaching staff, not Booker.

Both Booker and Paul took the Suns to the NBA Finals back in 2021, which was the first time they saw success in decades. Then they shortly traded him away for Bradley Beal, who is no longer with the organization.

In the end, Paul signed a one-year deal to return home to the Los Angeles Clippers. He hasn’t been on that team in eight years.

According to Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times, the Chicago Bulls and Josh Giddey aren’t seeing eye-to-eye contract-wise as the Bulls want to pay him less than what he wants.

Giddey wants to be paid $30 million per year, which is roughly the same contract Jalen Suggs secured with the Orlando Magic.

It’s being reported Chicago is $8 to $10 million apart in negotiations, that has caused a tear between the two sides.

If the 22-year-old were to take the $11 million qualifying offer for the upcoming season, then he would become an unrestricted free agent. This, in turn, would allow teams to have more salary cap to get him at the price he wants.

Plus, organizations wouldn’t have to be hindered to matching rights. A significant difference in how teams would be approaching the rising player.

After the All-Star break, Giddey averaged 21.2 points, 10.7 rebounds, and 9.3 assists. This saw him take a leap defensively and offensively to boost the Bulls. He essentially became their number one option in the eyes of many.

“I think from the 50 games at the start of the season, it was two completely different players, and not only talking statistically,’’ Giddey said. ‘‘It was a confidence level, aggression level, effort level. You asked me to sell myself, I’d say the second half of the year is the player who I am. The first half was a completely different guy. Confidence was down, aggression down. Probably was down trying to fit in too much.”

According to ESPN’s Shams Charania, the Chicago Bulls and head coach Billy Donovan have agreed to a new multi-year contract that will keep him for the foreseeable future.

It is currently unclear how many years he received or how much money he’s getting, but both sides have been engaged in contract negotiations since the end of last season.

Donovan has been the coach of the Bulls since 2020; in his five years of running the team, Chicago has only been to the postseason one time and to the Play-In Tournament each time in the past three seasons.

A deal has been expected to be finalized since the New York Knicks showed legit interest in hiring the 60-year-old from the Bulls.