Draft Day 2017: Huge Decisions Await The Suns
By Drew Zlogar
The Phoenix Suns are not in ‘win now’ mode. Quite frankly, they are a few years out from being considered anything close to a legitimate threat to their Western Conference foes. Something that would totally derail any progress made throughout the past couple seasons, would be to sign an ill-fitting star, or once again draft a player tomorrow with a tag around his neck that reads “could be good in 3-4 seasons.”
Don’t get me wrong, if you told me for the right price, the Phoenix Suns could bring a guy like Kristaps Porzingis from the Knicks, Paul George from the Pacers, or Jimmy Butler from Chicago, then you wouldn’t hear one word of complaint from me.
But these rumors surrounding Paul Millsap once again, and more recently, DeAndre Jordan? The Phoenix front office had better think long and hard if players like them would really fit the mold of what they are trying to build in the Valley. By all means, I believe if it is the right star, the Suns should pull the trigger. I am here just as a friendly reminder for them to not get blinded by the name of the player, and not think through how they would fit with the current roster.
Now, lets shift our attention to the draft this afternoon. For fans of low market NBA teams, draft night gets the butterflies going in the belly similar to the feeling fans of the Cavaliers and Warriors had throughout the NBA Finals a couple of weeks ago.
On draft night, the Suns will have a lot of potential decisions on their hands. If a team, like the Knicks, Pacers, Bulls, etc. reach out to talk fourth pick and young studs like T.J. Warren or Eric Bledsoe in a package for a well-fitting star, then they should entertain it. But if they find themselves going forward with making the pick, they need to understand that taking another project player, such as Jonathan Isaac, isn’t necessarily the best thing to do. Some fans will say that drafting Isaac will continue this ‘build for the future’ trend that the team has been doing, but there comes a time that the franchise needs to surround the young guns with ‘ready now’ talent. Another player with a trajectory similar to that of Dragan Bender isn’t exactly ideal anymore.
The ‘ready now’ talent comes in players like Josh Jackson, Jayson Tatum, and De’Aaron Fox. These three, to go along with the sure number one overall selection in Markelle Fultz, seem like the most NBA ready players in this draft. Bringing in one of these studs will tell Suns fans that they now have someone to go to battle alongside Booker and Chriss night in and night out. A lengthy forward like Jackson or Tatum could complete a pretty formidable 1-2 punch with Devin Booker on the wing.
Bringing in a guard like Fox more than likely ends the run of Eric Bledsoe in Phoenix, however starts an era of the Kentucky product that has flashes of Russell Westbrook and John Wall in him. Either way, these players would tell the Suns faithful they are determined to at least start trying to move forward with their squad.
It is a fun time to be a Suns fan right now. Let’s just hope that Phoenix management makes the right decision.