The Phoenix Suns should be making calls to other NBA teams about trading for a point guard, but they shouldn’t be eager to give up a first round pick.
After trading away Brandon Knight to the Rockets, the Phoenix Suns are now without a starting point guard. The three main point guards left on the roster are Elie Okobo, De’Anthony Melton, and Shaquille Harrison, who have a combined 23 NBA games between them. None of the three were first rounders either.
There’s still ample reason to have confidence in the Suns’ point guard situation in the future. They have three quality young ones. But for this year, to help with winning and the development of other players, the Suns will likely look to bring in outside help.
Giving up assets, whether it be a current rotation player like Dragan Bender or an assortment of second round picks, makes sense if it means bringing in a more experienced floor general. What doesn’t make sense is giving up a first round pick for a temporary point guard fix, especially when the Suns have a history of undervaluing their future picks.
In February of 2015, as part of a three team deal with the Bucks and Sixers, the Phoenix Suns traded away a protected Lakers first round pick for Brandon Knight. The Lakers relied on multiple years of lottery luck to keep the pick through 2017, which could’ve conveyed as high as number four. In 2018, it finally went to Philly as number 10.
The Suns made it way too clear they regret that trade this offseason. They showed they view Knight as a player with little value by moving on from him despite having no discernible backup plan. And in the draft, they gave up yet another valuable future first to get back a pick they never should’ve given up in the first place.
The Lakers pick they traded for Knight, ending up in the hands of the Sixers, was used on Mikal Bridges. The Suns then sent the 16th pick and the Miami Heat 2021 unprotected first round pick to Philly for Bridges. That Heat pick could end up far better than even the Lakers pick.
The Miami Heat are aging. They’re already looking to move on from their lone All-Star in Goran Dragic. Essentially their entire team is under bad long term contracts, giving them few options to stop their expected descent leading up to 2021.
The Heat pick should be high. And even if it’s not that high, the 2021 draft could be the first with high schoolers. That means there will be twice as many top prospects, making every first rounder twice as valuable. The Suns traded this pick to move up just six spots in the middle of the first round and acquire a player that few viewed as significantly better than the options at 16.
Bridges is a good prospect, and Knight was a good point guard when the Phoenix Suns brought him in. That can be true while simultaneously acknowledging the team gave up far too much in both of those trades. They need to be cautious not to repeat those mistakes.
Because of protections, the Bucks pick is likely to be a mid to late first rounder in 2020. That’s a high enough pick to become a solid prospect, and the Suns shouldn’t trade it for a one year bandaid. They especially shouldn’t trade any of their own first rounders. Their timeline isn’t very predictable, and they could end up accidentally losing their own lottery pick.
The Phoenix Suns should be making calls for a point guard around the league, but they should place higher value on their first round picks.