How good will the Suns actually be with Towns?
If the Phoenix Suns were to trade for Towns, he would be paired up with Devin Booker and presumably Josh Jackson (as again, I cannot imagine that the Suns would trade both the first overall pick and Josh Jackson to acquire Towns). Put together, that would be a very nice, young core, of a big, and two wings.
Exactly what the Minnesota Timberwolves had last season when they finished 47-35.
(And according to fans on Twitter, that is exactly what most of you want to see happen this offseason:)
Forget about HOW it could happen, just IF it could happen, which one of these star trios would you most like the #Suns to run out on Opening Night? #TimeToRise #SUNSat50
— Valley of the Suns (@ValleyoftheSuns) May 19, 2018
The 2017-18 Timberwolves had Towns grouped up with Andrew Wiggins and Jimmy Butler. Compare those two to Booker and Jackson however you like, but the two team’s cores (especially if Jackson takes a significant step forward this season), are very comparable.
Except that Minnesota have much greater depth on their roster with Taj Gibson, Jeff Teague, Jamal Crawford, Tyus Jones, and Gorgui Dieng, something that at the moment the Phoenix Suns don’t have.
Now, could McDonough add veteran talent and depth to the roster to build around that core?
Absolutely!
But where does that leave them?
Exactly where the Minnesota Timberwolves are right now – potentially the 8th seed in the Western Conference, a position the Suns could actually be in already next offseason with Ayton manning the center position instead of Towns (although dependent on whoever else McDonough brings in. As I said before, I do not think that Ayton alone makes the Suns playoff contenders right away).
By acquiring Towns, the Suns pretty much become Minnesota West. Granted, they wouldn’t have to deal with the unknown of drafting a rookie and hoping that he pans out into the superstar that you would expect from the first overall pick – which is a big deal – but most prognosticators don’t seem to feel that Ayton is too much of a risk at all anyway. He too has had the “generational” tag applied to him, and has been all but the consensus first overall pick for several months – even with a higher than usual number of fans and analysts singing the praises of a second player, this year Luka Doncic, the closest thing to the Peyton Manning/Ryan Leaf argument the NBA has had at number one in forever.
But if the risk of drafting Ayton is fairly low, with the bust-factor being a complete non-conversational topic, then isn’t the reward that much higher?
As everyone knows, the Suns’ current resident star, Devin Booker, is Towns’ BFF and pairing the two up and extending them would almost assure that they would happily walk hand-in-hand together in Phoenix for the next decade to come.
But Devin Booker also wants to win, and he doesn’t necessarily need Towns to do so. Reportedly he has lobbied for Ayton and he knows that the Suns are in a great position to improve the roster this offseason giving them the chance to begin winning beginning next season. There is also no reason to believe that he couldn’t strike up a similar friendship with Ayton and have the desire to win with him as well.
Trading for what might essentially become a parallel move isn’t enough of a reason to make the trade.
Losing out on cap space though, is a specific reason not to.