It only took few hours for NBA free agency to give us the first “huh?” moment. The Phoenix Suns picked up right where they left off at the trade deadline — making confusing moves that seem to defy logic and reason — by signing Tyson Chandler to a four-year, $52 million deal.

In a vacuum, that price tag is not too terribly hefty for a player of Chandler’s caliber and skill set in 2015. The widely anticipated cap bump has made teams a little more willing to shell out bigger contracts, and in terms of AAV (average annual value), $13 million a year doesn’t look all that bad.

The problem is that no signing is done in a vacuum, and the problems with this deal are the fact that Chandler will be 36 by the end of the contract and that the Suns already had a promising young center still on a rookie deal in Alex Len. The likelihood that Chandler will perform up to his pay in the last couple of years is not high, considering that he has already lost a step, going from an all-world defender and destroyer of rims to a very good two-way center. Add that into the fact that the Suns already had the 21-year-old Len on the roster, and the signing becomes a little bit difficult to understand.

Len seemingly possesses the higher upside at a greater cost, as he still has two years left on his rookie deal. Bigs that young ready to play significant NBA minutes aren’t exactly a dime a dozen, and the ones to fit that bill aren’t usually rendered expendable by their own teams, even less so when they have a draft pedigree like Len (No. 5 overall pick in 2013).

Since the signing, the Suns have made subsequent moves to try to recruit LaMarcus Aldridge to the roster, and there was a line of thinking that Chandler’s signing made the Suns more attractive to Aldridge since he doesn’t like playing center. However, the Suns landing Aldridge was always a long shot (he’s since agreed to terms with the San Antonio Spurs) and certainly Len qualifies as a legit NBA center.

The puzzling aspects of this signing are not necessarily in the pure dollar figure. Chandler is by no means a bad player and not even necessarily overpaid. The question marks remain the length and opportunity cost of the contract, as now one of the team’s bright young talents will be squeezed for minutes, and possibly even on the move to a savvy team that recognizes a bargain when it sees one.