On the surface the reported trade of Eric Bledsoe to the Milwaukee Bucks for center Greg Monroe and a future first and second round pick is a complete crock of a trade for the Phoenix Suns.
In Eric Bledsoe the Suns had a very good basketball commodity. A healthy point guard just entering the prime of his career (Suns General Manager Ryan McDonough has said on numerous occasions that he believes that a point guard’s true prime does not begin until about Eric Bledsoe’s age, a point that can be said was entirely an attempt to sell the league on Bledsoe, but also one that has some historical accuracy to it), one who set career-high’s in both points and assists last season, and who is under a very team friendly contract through next season.
Suns have not made a decision as of yet on what to do with Greg Monroe. Could keep, trade or release.
— John Gambadoro (@Gambo987) November 7, 2017
Those are all reasons to assume that the Suns should have received much better value in return for their point guard.
On the surface, they did not.
Had the Suns traded for Greg Monroe three years ago, Suns fans would have been excited. Coming off of a 15.9 point and 10.2 rebound year, Monroe appeared to be an up-and-coming center in the league, a 24-year-old who would have been perfect for the not yet discussed rebuilding Suns. A first round pick too seems pretty nice, another tradeable asset that can help to land a star player, clear cap space by moving a larger contract, or have the potential for another Devin Booker in the draft.
Phoenix Suns
Yet today, not only does Greg Monroe appear to be nothing better than an average backup center, a player who much like Jahlil Okafor in Philadelphia has fallen out of the good graces of this former franchise, and the first round pick is so heavily (and admittedly strangely) protected that if the Suns get it this season or next, it will be nothing short of a miracle.
When discussing who won this trade, on the surface, there is no doubt that the Milwaukee Bucks should be the crowned the victors.
But what this trade does do for Suns fans (aside from want to scream “what the hell has happened to the Suns?!?!”) is assure them that the slow path of rebuild that has been the cornerstone growth concept for this franchise for the past year or so, has remained totally in place.
Greg Monroe is the fourth center on this roster, and barring some miraculous turnaround in Phoenix over the next 70+ games, will undoubtedly be gone come this summer – which is exactly what the Suns want. He is an unrestricted free agent, and will most assuredly be on another team’s payroll next season.
Phoenix absolutely did not want to dump Eric Bledsoe off on another team for nothing, and they would have preferred to have acquired a young piece that could fill an important role for them over the next few years.
Apparently they believed that they could not get that player.
Instead, they got cap space.
Yes, the tell-tale sign that a franchise is in trouble, cap space.
For a rebuild though, this is exactly what the Suns want.
Devin Booker is a season-and-a-half away from signing a mega contract. Both Dragan Bender and Marquese Chriss (presuming that are each a part of the future) are two-and-a-half seasons away. They have already paid T.J. Warren well to keep him around. It is possible that they re-sign Alex Len next summer (although he too is an unrestricted free agent) should this early season revival of his not be an aberration but instead a sign of real growth.
Suns will have roughly $20 million in cap space next offseason with Monroe expiring deal and could easily get to $30 mill for a max contract
— John Gambadoro (@Gambo987) November 7, 2017
McDonough has already stated that he does not intend on entering the 2018 free agent market, that the year to make the plunge will be the summer of 2019 when the team will be set up to acquire two max contract players.
They want to show growth this season, acquire another high draft pick (potentially two, or at least hopefully use the Miami pick due to them this summer to move up in the draft), then do the same next offseason, and with a core of possibly six young players under rookie or manageable contracts, enter the summer of ‘19 with every available dollar to spend and use it to finally make that huge splash in the league that we are still clambering to occur.
Yes, the Phoenix Suns lost this trade, on the surface. But in a roundabout way, this is what they wanted to do for the long run.
Next: Where should the Eric Bledsoe trade rank in the list of bad Phoenix Suns trades of all-time?
Sam Hinkie begged 76ers fans to patiently “trust the process.” This is essentially what the Phoenix Suns are asking fans here to do now. Granted they would have preferred to trade Eric Bledsoe for a whole lot more, and had they traded him over the summer, they probably would have.
Hinkie didn’t survive in Philadelphia long enough to see the process develop into the team of his dreams. Ryan McDonough may not either. Yet, this trade is proof that McDonough is sticking to his vision of “the process” as well, and as hard as that is too accept, is exactly what the plan was all along.