Phoenix Suns: 5 Awful Draft-Day Trades That Buried The Suns
1. Rajon Rondo
Finally, we arrive at the 2006 cherry on top of this s**t sundae known as the Phoenix Suns’ draft strategy from 2004-07. In 2006, the Suns selected Rajon Rondo with the 21st pick in the draft. Now, to be fair, no one knew the type of player that Rondo would become. It’s also worth noting that the Suns already had Steve Nash and Leandro Barbosa at the point guard position.
But what the Suns did with Rondo was simply monstrous, trading him and forward Brian Grant to the Boston Celtics for Cleveland’s 2007 first round pick and cash considerations. That first round pick from Cleveland turned into…wait for it…Rudy Fernandez, who was traded to the Blazers for cash.
The Rondo trade was bad by itself. He’s since become an NBA champion and although his last few years haven’t been a ringing endorsement of his talent, there’s no doubt he might have become elite playing behind Steve Nash in a system where he would’ve had plenty of scorers to set up. But then you look at the bigger picture and it’s hard to feel positive about any of this.
So just to recap, from 2004-07, the Suns had the opportunity to add Luol Deng, Nate Robinson, Marcin Gortat, Rajon Rondo and/or Rudy Fernandez (ALL on rookie-scale contracts, no less). Instead, they wound up with Jackson Vroman, cash considerations, two years of Kurt Thomas, 10 games of Dijon Thompson, more cash considerations, even more cash considerations and (wait for it) MORE cash considerations.
In the process of those trades, the Suns also lost Quentin Richardson, Brian Grant, James Jones and the opportunity to draft Quincy Pondexter and Serge Ibaka. Hindsight is 20-20, but no wonder Nash’s Suns never won any titles.
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