The Suns would have saved themselves from a number of unnecessary events
Hindsight is 20/20, I understand that. So while the Suns were apparently blindsided by the Eric Bledsoe trade demand, they had to have known that there was growing discontent with Bledsoe, making the necessity of trading him fairly strong. Moving him in a package that would have netted the Suns a star point guard capable of doing what he is doing in Boston would have been beautiful.
Yes, the Suns would have lost out on Josh Jackson (as well as the Milwaukee first round pick and depending on the total package demand by the Cavaliers, the Miami first round pick in 2018 as well), but in the short term, that wouldn’t have hurt the Suns. Not only has Jackson been far from the impact player that the team was hoping they were getting immediately out of the gates, but there is no guarantee that the future Milwaukee and Miami picks would have allowed the Suns to acquire absolutely anything close to a player of Irving’s stature, and thus, not necessarily anything special.
Regardless, the Suns would have had a star player right out of the gate to place next to Booker in the offense, and while sometime down the line (in 4-5 years) when the potential draft picks could be reaching their prime, Phoenix could be well into a lengthy Western Conference dominance with Kyrie, Booker, and whomever else they eventually acquired.
Speaking of who they may have acquired…