Should The Suns Trade Eric Bledsoe For A Draft Pick?
The Verdict
This Eric Bledsoe conundrum is more complicated than it appears on paper. Shipping away a team’s best player, even on a non-playoff team, is almost always a step backward. Such a move would push the Suns further into tank/development mode, though it could conceivably land them a franchise player in the process.
NBA champions are almost always built upon a draft selection cornerstone, and in the rare exceptions where they aren’t, that cornerstone comes from a star acquisition in free agency. When was the last time the Suns landed a superstar free agent like that?
Even if Phoenix was a prime free agency destination, would Kevin Love, LaMarcus Aldridge or Marc Gasol be enough to push the Suns over the edge and into contender status?
With such a young supporting cast, it’s tough to imagine a Suns team like that contending for a title before the primes of those players are behind them.
Traveling along that train of thought takes the Suns to a place where trading Eric Bledsoe (painfully) makes sense. He’s easily Phoenix’s most attractive trade asset and shipping away what’s left of his massive contract extension — even with the salary cap shooting through the roof soon — sounds pretty enticing when compared to a rookie scale contract.
But giving up on a team that’s one superstar away from taking the next step forward is a tricky gamble to make, especially after trading away the team’s two other point guards just a few months earlier.
There are no wrong or right answers here. Some gambles pay off, some don’t, and hindsight is always 20/20 in these types of situations. But at this point, taking such a risky step backward doesn’t seem like the right move, especially for the price of Bledsoe AND the No. 13 pick.
Perhaps if the deal could be tweaked to Bledsoe and Phoenix’s 2016 first rounder (via Cleveland), that would be more agreeable. But trading the Suns’ best player for another shot in the dark feels risky, even if you fully buy into the potential of D’Angelo Russell, Kristaps Porzingis or Emmauel Mudiay.
With the 2015 NBA Draft coming Thursday night, we may not have to wait too much longer to find out just how much substance there is behind these rumors.
Next: How The Suns Can Get DeMarcus Cousins