Valley of the Suns
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Suns could be key to facilitate Melo to Houston trade

By Adam Maynes

NEW YORK, NY - JANUARY 21: Carmelo Anthony
NEW YORK, NY - JANUARY 21: Carmelo Anthony /
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This morning ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowksi tweeted that the Houston Rockets and New York Knicks were working on a potential four-team deal to ship Carmelo Anthony to Houston.

Carmelo has since said that he believes the trade is close, and it has also been reported that the deal is on the two-yard line. It seems, by all accounts, that by week’s end, Carmelo Anthony will be  a Houston Rocket.

Though there are several teams in the league that could take on an additional contract to help facilitate this deal, it very well could be the Phoenix Suns.

Ryan McDonough has stated that he would be willing to take on a large contract should said contract either come with a building block young player, or future first round draft picks. For many Suns fans, although a young player who could contribute now would be acceptable, the first round picks would be most ideal as they could be used as future trade chips when Phoenix makes a legitimate run at a star.

Who the big contract could be is still up a little in the air, although the growing consensus seems to be Ryan Anderson.

Ask Suns fans of five years ago if they’d like Ryan Anderson, a good shooting stretch four, and many would have said, absolutely. Ask fans now, and they groan.

Ryan Anderson’s contract is monstrous.  According to basketball-reference.com, he is scheduled to make $19,578,455 this season, $20,421,546 in 2018-19, and $21,264,635 in 2019-20, for a grand total of just over $61.2M over the next three years (and you thought Brandon Knight’s deal was huge).

According to sportrac.com, the Suns do not currently have that kind of cap space available to take his contract on. With Alex Len’s current cap hold of about $12M, even after the signing of Alan Williams to his three-year, $17M deal, the team has approx. $7M in cap space. Should Phoenix renounce Len’s rights granting him unrestricted free agency now, they would have just about $19M, potentially enough to take on Anderson’s deal for this season. Of course, if any one of the three larger contracts in Brandon Knight, Tyson Chandler, or Jared Dudley are moved in a salary dump, then Phoenix would have at least $10 back in cap space for future moves.

Subsequently moving any one of them in a dump will almost certainly require the packaging of a future pick – something fans are, and should, be wary of. If a deal can be made for seconds, then perfect. Although a first almost defeats the purpose of making a move for Ryan Anderson in the first place.

If Anderson were to be acquired, he then becomes the new Brandon Knight with a huge contract and no real spot for him on the roster. There is no doubt that he could easily come in and contribute offensively more than any of the aforementioned three players (he averaged 13.6 points and 40.3% from beyond the arc), he would be paid as a starter, although he would unlikely be one.

In then trying to figure out what to do with his contract, if acquired, he also couldn’t be traded away right away, though at some point the Suns could look to flip him for another player on a huge contract, but one that only has a year or two remaining in their deal, thus chopping a year off of the length of their financial obligations.

Phoenix could also look to offer him a buyout potentially saving them money immediately, although they would be hampered with some serious dead money on the cap for the next three years for sure.

They could also hold on to him for this season and look to move him in the offseason of 2018, or even hold onto him until around the trade deadline of 2019. Hypothetically that shouldn’t hurt the franchise’s long term plans, but if at that point they have their eye on a big name free agent or two next summer, his contract would potentially block them from signing said star outright.

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In the end though, if Ryan McDonough is heart-set on taking on a large contract for picks, and he could acquire two or three future firsts in this deal, then becoming a part of this four-team trade might actually be his only opportunity to do so.

Salary dumps with first round picks are rare and there is no guarantee that a perfect one would ever fall into his lap. McDonough intentionally left $9M on the cap at the start of last season holding the door open for the very same possibility – and we all know that that kind of a trade never came to fruition.

Yet I wouldn’t put anything past him as, if the Rockets and Knicks are dead-set on making this deal happen and they need a fourth team to take on an albatross contract, the Phoenix Suns could be the very team they need to get it done.

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