After a rough season and now after being arrested this weekend the Phoenix Suns could look to trade Josh Jackson, but what is his value?
Going into the off-season it was pretty obvious that the Phoenix Suns were going to have to make a move with at least one of their four small forwards on the roster. Josh Jackson might have made the decision easy for the team this weekend after he was arrested after trying to sneak into the VIP section of a music festival.
After an event like this and an uninspiring two years there is going to be serious consideration into trading the 2017 fourth overall pick. What kind of value should the Suns be expecting back and what has recent history told us about the returns of top-5 picks traded this early in their careers?
Even after these recent failures Jackson still has some trade value because of his high draft position and flashes on the court. The two best recent comparisons to look at to find Jackson’s trade value are Markelle Fultz and D’Angelo Russell.
Markelle had arguably performed worse than Jackson when on the court but had major concerns whether he would ever be healthy. Even under these conditions Fultz was still able to net Philadelphia a mid-first round pick from the Thunder, early second round pick from Cleveland and Jonathon Simmons.
In Los Angeles De’Angelo had a completely different set of off the court issues for the Lakers that admittedly are less serious than Jackson’s but still caused hesitation. Getting rid of Russell was able to relieve them of the terrible Timofey Mozgov contract that still had 3 years remaining and still brought them back a late-first round pick along with Brook Lopez.
It would make sense for the return on Josh to be more in line with what Markelle fetched. The potential with Jackson is not quite what it is with Fultz especially since we have seen him play for two years, however Jackson’s contract is a bit more manageable for teams to acquire.
Phoenix also does not have a big contract like Mozgov in the way which makes it more likely that Jackson would be the biggest salary moved in any deal he is involved in.
Going based off of all of this, and considering Jackson’s recent troubles off the court it is unlikely to expect a huge return for him. The best the Suns could hope for is probably something close to a late first round pick (think Buck’s pick that the Suns own) along with a future second round pick if they are lucky. It would have to come from a young team who can absorb Jackson’s contract like Cleveland or Atlanta.
Jackson’s value has never been lower, now it is up to new GM James Jones to decide if he is going to sell low or hope Jackson has a resurgence next season.