Brandon Knight is on the Verge of Being Traded

Dallas Mavericks

Dallas was almost as tricky as San Antonio in that the several players that might be palatable from the Suns’ perspective over the long-term, just do not seem likely to be traded this season.
Dirk is out of the question, obviously. Harrison Barnes is an over-priced – and year older – T.J. Warren, so unless the Suns believed that taking on Barnes’ contract now and moving Warren makes them better, I don’t see that happening. And then Wesley Mathews would be a really nice addition, but his acquisition in a trade for Knight would be redundant and unnecessary.

Which leaves another expiring contract acquisition option in Andrew Bogut.

Bogut would be plausible because it would open cap space for the Suns this coming offseason, as well as give the Suns the opportunity to trade Tyson Chandler during the season if they felt so inclined. While I personally would prefer to see Chandler play out his contract in Phoenix, replacing Knight with Bogut and then flipping Chandler would still leave the roster with two centers for the rest of the year, as well as whatever they acquire in the Chandler trade.

Plus, unless the pieces they acquire in the hypothetical Chandler deal aren’t cost effective, the amount of cap space available by losing both Knight and Chandler’s contracts would be astronomical in this new age of expanded caps – especially given that the cap is expected to take another significant leap this offseason.

So, if General Manager Ryan McDonough believes that he can be in the running for at least one max player either via free agency or through trade for a disgruntled player, then having both players off the books by acquiring Bogut would prove to be financially brilliant.

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