Why the Suns Shouldn’t Pursue Kyrie Irving
The Suns have established that they’re all in on the youth movement.
They have extended Ryan McDonough and signed former Sun, James Jones, as the VP of Basketball Operations. They have decided to make a pass on free agency this year to be in a position to take on bad contracts in order to acquire even more assets. The Suns already have extensive assets, all of their own future picks (many of which will likely be high lottery picks), the 2018 and 2021 Miami firsts, and so many young players.
Why accumulate all those great assets only to blow them preemptively?
Despite the Western Conference being much stronger than the East in the 2016-2017 season, the West has somehow managed to make the disparity even greater during the offseason.
Right now, it is very possible that the Suns will be the worst team in the West with the current commitment to youth and development. So the question stands, what needs to happen for the Suns to make the playoffs, and what is a realistic timeline?
Adding an All-Star this season would, at best, boost the Suns into the high lottery range (10-14 pick) for the upcoming season.
Moving forward, the Suns would be lucky to secure the 5th-8th seed in the 2018-2019 season if all went perfectly. But more than likely, the Suns will end their playoff drought in 2019-2020, if the rebuild goes as planned. In the NBA youth just doesn’t beat experience.
If that holds true, then why give up great potential pieces of the Suns future playoff team, for an All-Star today, who may not even be in Phoenix by the time the team is finally ready to make a run?
In order for the Suns to secure Kyrie Irving from the Cleveland Cavaliers, they would need to trade Bledsoe, at least one of the Miami picks (probably two), and another young player (probably Chriss, Bender, or Warren). So if my math is right, the Suns would need to give up 2-4 players for 1 All-Star. Parting ways with two key contributors today plus one to two future players would actually have a decent chance of hurting the Suns playoff hopes in the future.
In no way do I mean to diminish Kyrie Irving as a player. He has helped lead the Cavaliers to three consecutive Finals, and is just 25-years-old. Pairing Irving with Booker and the remaining young pieces would also be one-of-a-kind. Irving could open up the court and take attention away from Booker, which would allow for more insight into the player he is destined to become.
Despite this being exciting in the short-term, I believe this move would compromise the long-term potential of this young, rebuilding Suns team. Few championship teams have built their team through free agency, but have more often drafted a strong core and then filled in around the edges with free agents and trades. The main exceptions involve perennial superstars. For example, the Big-three joined Miami and when Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett teamed up with Paul Pierce in Boston.
Next: Why the Suns SHOULD Acquire Kyrie Irving
Is Kyrie a great player? Absolutely. Is he a superstar who can transform the Suns into a championship caliber team? Unfortunately no.
If the Suns are in this to win a championship, and not just to sell more tickets and get a few more games on national television in the coming seasons, then the best course of action is to pass on the Kyrie sweepstakes.