Philadelphia 76ers
Let’s go ahead and shoot for the moon here and make a trade for the single young player in the NBA that I have been calling for the Suns to trade for for some time: Jahlil Okafor and his $16M bargain-basement ultra-value contract over the next three years.
A one-for-one trade works in this situation, though it is unlikely that the Suns would only be able to give up Knight for Jahlil. Either a 2016 rookie would have to be shipped off as well, at least one first round pick, or some combination of the two.
Either way I say make the move.
Okafor has the talent to be a once in a generation center in the NBA at best, and a dominant center at least. Imagining him in a lineup with Devin Booker and T.J. Warren for a decade (and if either Marquese Chriss or Dragan Bender pan out to the higher levels of expectations) makes me salivate.
A trade for Okafor also opens up several other major moves for the Suns.
If they again decide to flip Tyson Chandler, the Suns will likely open up additional cap space for this offseason’s free agency or to re-sign Alex Len. However, they could also turn and flip Len (or just include him in this trade, which also works) and allow Chandler to help coach up Okafor for the next few years, a move that would still save money since the Suns would not have to pay Len his expectedly large contract extension.
This is not the first time that I have called for the Suns to make a move for Okafor and it will not be the last. Until I see absolute certainty that he is either coming here, staying there, or going somewhere else, I will continue to pound the pavement campaigning for the Suns to make this move.
If Okafor is off the table or impossible to obtain, then the Suns could look to trade for Joel Embiid or Nerlens Noel.
Embiid has a similarly high ceiling as Okafor, but since he currently has the starting role in Philadelphia, he is likely entrenched in that spot moving forward. Noel on the other hand may be the most expendable as he is appears to be the lesser of the three talents. He is also the most flexible.
Noel is very similar in statistical output to Alex Len, so the Suns could maintain the status quo if Noel was brought in to replace Len. However, he is also capable of playing the power forward position, so if he were traded for without Len being attached, Noel could play alongside Len or Chandler, presenting a very formidable defensive wall.
The initial downside to Noel at power forward is that he would block Chriss and Bender, so he may be the least palatable for the Suns anyway.
*Note, there are a lot of rumors floating around about Noel on the trading block already, although none appear to have him tied to the Suns at the moment.
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