Much of that improvement is actually the result of the rest of the NBA spending heavily. The Suns now look stronger by comparison.
This free agency period played out just as Robert Sarver and Ryan McDonough thought it would when they signed Eric Bledsoe, Brandon Knight, and Tyson Chandler to similar contracts.
The deals, averaging from $12 to $14 million per season, were all large deals at the time that are now very reasonable.
Whether you argue that the Suns were frugal in free agency, or that no big time free agents were interested in signing with the team, they did not sign any of the mega-contracts that were dealt out this summer.