24th Pick
Despite the fact that Burks makes more than $10 million a year, he’s still in his mid-20’s, and he has a lot of offensive talent to offer the Suns. They give up some future assets next year, as well as cap space, in order to draft a player here. For the Jazz, they shed $10 million, and get a future asset while giving themselves more room to keep Gordon Hayward and George Hill in free agency.
Hartenstein projects to be a similar type of player to Dragan Bender. He’s seven feet tall, and he can handle, shoot, and pass well for his size and position. What separates him from Bender though, is his defense. Or lack thereof. He has little in the way of rim protection skills, and he could be bullied pretty easily matched up against heavier players. He may be more of a Toni Kukoc type player, sticking more to the perimeter and offering a matchup problem on offense. Despite Bender’s comparison to Kukoc, Bender is more of a big man than Kukoc. He can protect the rim and rebound far better than Toni ever could, and better than Isaiah can. Isaiah would offer even more versatility and matchup problems for Phoenix.