Next Up Part 2: Who the Phoenix Suns should trade for
By Andrew Clark
Lonzo Ball
Similar to Jackson and Memphis, the only way that the Lakers moves Lonzo Ball is to get out from under Deng’s bad contract, and the only reason they care that much about ridding themselves of Deng is if LeBron agree to take his talents there and needs additional cap space to bring along a couple of friends.
With or without LeBron coming, the Lakers need the money to go get free agents and of course, if they can do that without moving Ball they will. However, sometimes you have to give up pieces to make things fit and the Suns might have a chance to get a really good distributor to fit alongside a team who needs that exact skill set.
To make such a move happen, it would look like this:
You probably sense a pattern at this point about what the Suns can offer, and the truth of the matter is: this is really the best package Phoenix has to make a deal without touching any of the young core that they would rather not move.
That being said, while they gain some cap space, they don’t get that much right away because of T.J. Warren’s contract kicking in this season, and Troy Daniels and Jared Dudley’s staying on the books through the end of the season.
What the Lakers get though is individual trade pieces for LeBron to use to acquire star players in sign-and-trades or straight up trades. Outside of Kevin Durant, there isn’t another star available in free agency to he’ll have to have at least one trade to make the deal work, and having multiple pieces to work with rather than one giant contract that no one really wants, will help make that happen easier.
Next: Breaking down the Phoenix Suns' post draft roster
For the Suns in return, Lonzo still needs to learn how to play defense, and pairing him up in that regard will mean a backcourt that will rely very heavily on the frontcourt stepping up as guards fly through. But offensively, he’d be ideal feeding the rock to Booker and Ayton. If Ball can learn how to shoot 3’s he’ll be incredibly deadly on the offensive and overall it would be really fun to have another triple-double threat every night like Jason Kidd, all those many years ago.