Trade Rumor: Phoenix and Sacramento Discussing Cousins Trade
By Adam Maynes
The Suns haven’t had a blockbuster trade in what… 12 months? Isn’t it time for another one?
With the trade deadline now less than three weeks away, the Phoenix Suns and Sacramento Kings are reportedly having internal discussions about a potential blockbuster trade involving DeMarcus Cousins as the centerpiece player coming to Phoenix for a large package.
— John Gambadoro (@Gambo987) January 31, 2017
According to Arizona Sports’ John Gambadoro, the Suns and Kings are discussing a package of:
Phoenix Receives:
DeMarcus Cousins
Sacramento Receives:
2017 1st Round pick
Potentially a second 1st Round pick
SF T.J. Warren
C Alex Len
For the Suns, they would be receiving a sure-fire superstar big in Demarcus Cousins, something they would not be able to find in this season’s draft. Billed as a point guard heavy draft, the Suns already have a plethora of guards on the roster, including Eric Bledsoe, who is having a career-year at only 27 years old.
Cousins would immediately step in as the team’s highest scorer, best shot blocker, and second best rebounder behind Tyson Chandler. He is also a very good on-ball defender and would be tied with Eric Bledsoe and P.J. Tucker as the team’s steals leader.
DeMarcus Cousins is signed under the old salary cap guidelines through next season and would be on the hook for a very handsome contract extension in 2018, to the tune of about $207M, according to Gambo.
For the superstar Phoenix would be giving up a very nice package, the main attraction being this season’s 1st round pick as it could possibly be top-3. The caveat to that being that with Cousins on the roster the Suns would undoubtedly improve fairly quickly and the pick could potentially slide considerably should the Suns go on some sort of a second half run.
With that in mind, if the two teams are serious about this trade, look for it to happen at the last minute giving the Suns more time to lose as many games as possible keeping the pick as high as possible for Sacramento.
Eric Bledsoe and DeMarcus Cousins played together in Kentucky for one season in 2009-10 and have been very good friends ever since. The two also played with Washington Wizards star John Wall, the three having very public discussions this past off-season about their wish to all play with one another again in the NBA.
Other moves would still be likely, the most talked about being the potential trade of Brandon Knight. He too played for Kentucky, although after Bledsoe and Cousins. The Suns may look to save cap space by ridding themselves of Knight’s contract for a 1st round pick, if they can find a taker, potentially still garnering the Suns a pick in this year’s draft, should they wish to go in that direction.