Is Philadelphia Brandon Knight’s Ultimate Destination?
By Adam Maynes
Additional Trade Rumors for Brandon Knight
Roje Smith, a FanSided Contributor, has discussed the possibilities of Brandon Knight’s move from Phoenix twice over the past few days. Today however, he broke down five potential destinations: Philadelphia (a very popular destination), New Orleans, Chicago, Dallas, and the current hot spot – Sacramento.
(To read his entire article and for the rationale behind each trade, click here)
From a Suns fan’s perspective, let’s quickly discuss exactly what Phoenix would get back in return in each of these scenarios:
Philadelphia 76ers
Like Josh Wilson of Sixer Sense before him, Roje believes that Philadelphia would be a perfect destination. And like Wilson, he believes that Noel would be a good piece to get back, although he offers who I have mentioned in the past as the best possible return from Philadelphia, Jahlil Okafor.
Whether the Suns get Noel or Okafor, Phoenix would then have options on the table in their front court moving forward that they currently do not have: Trade Tyson Chandler and re-sign both Alex Len and the former-Sixer, or keep Chandler, and either attempt to move Len this season as well, or let him walk in the off-season and resign Noel, or Okafor when the time comes.
"A combination of Noel and Len can be a daunting one in terms of rim protection and board crashing…As for Okafor, since post scoring is a need in Phoenix, he immediately resolves that issue and is still improving as a player."
Potential Trade Grade = A-
New Orleans Pelicans
A trade to New Orleans could bring back Tyreke Evans or Jrue Holiday, with the implication that they are both free-agents this off-season, freeing up cap space should the Suns prefer to go that rout.
Evans has a bit on an injury history, something the Suns might not want to touch – at least long-term – especially with the injury history to Eric Bledsoe already. In the unfortunate event that those two players were injured for a longer period at the same time, the Suns would be in a heap-load of trouble. Granted this is a risk that is always a possibility, and the Suns have a world-renowned training staff, but for a franchise looking to not only build for the future but hopefully start winning soon, that might be a big risk.
Jrue Holiday is basically Eric Bledsoe statistically. He has had higher assist numbers in the past than Bledsoe, but they have sunk back down to about where Eric is today. So, a trade of Knight for Holiday would seem to be redundant, especially with the knowledge that there is a good chance that about four of the top-five picks in this summer’s draft will be point guards, and Phoenix currently sits in the top-five.
If the Suns can get a player in return for Knight that is going to expire soon, I think the preference would be an veteran coupled and a draft pick, vs. younger players and no draft pick who are likely going to let walk.
Potential Trade Grade = C