Breaking down an interesting Phoenix Suns trade proposal
By Adam Maynes
Why both teams would make the trade
Why Minnesota would make this trade, according to Buckley, is to jettison an aging point guard with seemingly diminishing ability based on a poor performance last season and who has a gigantic $19 million still owed to him this coming season. Minnesota saves about $8 million this year by swapping Jeff Teague for T.J. Warren plus the approximately $3.5 million they would have to allocate this season for their own first round pick.
Phoenix Suns
Not to mention, Warren is far and away better than whoever they were going to get at 11 anyway, and for a team who at the start of last season believed they were going to be who the Milwaukee Bucks became, they’d much rather invest in the now than the hope of the development of a mid-lottery pick who probably won’t become they player they need today for a few years, if ever.
It is actually more difficult to see why the Phoenix Suns would make this trade, although I do see logic in it, just not the same that Buckley appears to see.
For starters, the Phoenix Suns already have a severely overpaid and underachieving point guard who can only provide diminishing returns on that investment in Tyler Johnson. Adding a second to the roster does not seem to immediately make much sense.
That said, the acquisition of an expiring contract as a tradable asset along with a draft pick or a young player is exactly what Ryan McDonough said he wanted to do for several years, but was never able to pull off.
It is in someways exactly what the Suns could have had last season with Tyson Chandler and Austin Rivers last season, but let them slip away for nothing.
Teague is also a better point guard than anyone they’ve got already (including Johnson), so there would be some improvement there if he is retained so long as he is healthy (he missed 40 games last season).
With the acquisition of Teague who would not be the point guard of the future, the Suns would at minimum have to acquire another point guard elsewhere, be it a veteran or draft pick, to help protect themselves from running point guard-less for an extended period of time should he ever go down again.
Phoenix also does not (or at least should not) want to get any younger this offseason than they already are, and the concept of adding two prospects in the lottery is so 2016, and makes most Suns fans cringe at the thought.