The risk is worth taking
For Phoenix, this is a risk worth taking (so long as Davis doesn’t take it easy and slugs through the entire season only playing to prevent injury from negatively affecting contract value) even though the Unibrow has only one year before free agency.
Of course supporters of this kind of a move would turn to the leap of faith the Oklahoma City Thunder took in acquiring Paul George one year before he became an unrestricted free agent as evidence for moving forward with Davis, an obvious recent example that I too cite as a reason to take this risk.
Phoenix Suns
Davis would have the opportunity to pair up with Devin Booker, forming a very formidable duo, one far more potent than the Unibrow has ever enjoyed in New Orleans, and with T.J. Warren (presumably), Kelly Oubre, potentially Zion Williamson (or whoever Phoenix acquires in a trade for
that draft pick), if healthy the Suns would be a playoff team, and after a good regular season and a hopeful run to at least the Western Conference Semifinals, the year in Phoenix might make the Suns Davis’ desired destination and solidify his willingness to re-sign here.
The great key to this is that Davis would be forced to play here. And while he probably wouldn’t be all that thrilled about it in the beginning, he wouldn’t be playing anywhere else, an advantage that absolutely no other team in the NBA would have – including Los Angeles.
Phoenix would then have the entire upcoming year – like the Thunder before them – to prove to Davis that he should remain here, and in the end, if he is happy, it will be more difficult for him to leave Phoenix to go literally anywhere else, all of which would be the unknown.
That said, if Davis left, Sarver will still be in charge, and since the Unibrow wouldn’t have chosen Phoenix but rather was forced here due to trade, his one season with the Suns might not have been enough to change the rest of the league’s opinions of the franchise and Sarver might not be able to parlay this short-term success into a long-term winning franchise.
But there is that chance that it does.
There is a chance that, even if Davis pulls an Antonio McDyess and leaves in the middle of the night to the team he believed he should have been with all along, the winning season not only puts Phoenix on the map again for both free agents and players demanding a trade, but also makes Devin Booker an even more powerful voice around the league and his publicly stated desire to make the Suns a super team is finally viable.
Suns fans too would have had a fun 2019-20 season to enjoy, a break from the monotony of losing, reinvigorating our passion for the team, and offering Sarver at least a modicum of good will for taking a giant risk, that he currently has absolutely none of.
I love Jody Oehler’s idea and would be all for it.
Under most circumstances I would absolutely be against trading the prior year’s number one overall pick, especially when that player has shown plenty of promise that he will be very good, if not great, for a long time to come.
Unfortunately, outside of a dramatic move like this one, there just doesn’t seem to be many options for turning the franchise around immediately, one that would all but guarantee a playoff appearance in 2020.
While the risk is high which make the chances low, if the day after the season ended Jody Oehler himself was able to break and discuss the news of this exact trade going down, my hopes for not only a good season but a much more prosperous future will be higher than, well, they have been in nine years.