Possible trade options for Marquese Chriss

Unprotected First Round Pick

The first trade that I would accept, although one that likely not be offered to the Suns until the trade deadline, would be an unprotected first round pick.

Now, I am not stupid and believe that the Dallas Mavericks, Atlanta Hawks, or even the Cleveland Cavaliers (via the Brooklyn Nets), would offer their first round picks, totally unprotected, to the Suns this season just for Marquese Chriss. I cannot be the only person in the league that does not look so fondly on Chriss, especially when there are so many players at the top of this draft who appear to be far more NBA-ready and with much greater potential than Chriss does.

If I am the Suns too I would not accept a pick from the Cleveland Cavaliers (unless, of course, it is the Brooklyn pick), Golden State Warriors, Houston Rockets, et al., teams that are not only in the championship hunt, but even if they miss out, will be drafting 20 and above.

The sweet-spot that the Suns should aim for (although of course they should listen to an offer from one of the teams most likely to draft in the top-5, just in case they do think extremely highly about Chriss) is the 6-19 range.

That gives the Suns 14 teams (minus themselves should they fall in that range of course) with which to barter with, plenty of teams who will presumably not get high value with their one pick in the 2018 draft.

Now, for those of you who know me and watch Valley of the Suns Live! know that I do not want the Suns to continue to stockpile young players. Instead I believe that it is time (if not beyond time) to start making trades for star players that are already active and competing at a high level in the NBA.

So why would the Suns want another  first round draft pick in 2018?

To trade it!

If their own picks lands out of the top-4 (which is a very real possibility), then having additional first round picks to help to flip with a team ahead of them to hopefully take that true star player in the top-4 would help. If the Suns are going to draft anybody in 2018, they need to draft one player, and use the rest of the draft picks in their stash need to either be traded for players to help build a better roster, or be used for Euro-stashes to either be developed overseas, or eventually be traded themselves.

But if that doesn’t work, if the teams in front of the Suns don’t want to trade with them, then McDonough should then look around the league for those players who already have successful careers in the NBA and who can use the Suns to take that next step up.

If Phoenix has their own pick, Miami’s, Milwaukee’s, and then an additional pick in a hypothetical Chriss trade, then the Suns could potentially land that one last high draft pick, and package the rest in a move to grab the next main piece – or pieces – helping to build that next great series of Suns teams.