The Atlanta Hawks have more draft assets the Phoenix Suns might want

After their trade with the Brooklyn Nets, the Atlanta Hawks have a plethora of first round picks to play with: and the Phoenix Suns should call and see if a deal can be struck.

The Phoenix Suns have the sixth and 32nd overall picks in the NBA draft.

The Atlanta Hawks now have the eighth, tenth, and 17th picks, all in the first round.

The Phoenix Suns desperately need talent – star  talent (as do the Hawks), but also are feeling a time crunch from fans to begin winning now, something that most draft picks cannot offer at this time – if ever.

I have written in the past about a potential trade that the Suns could make with the Hawks to move back to eight and ten while the Hawks jump to six. It could still happen (although it would need to occur prior to the draft).

However, now that Atlanta has 17 as well, Phoenix could also look to relieve themselves of a little bit of money while still picking up a lottery ticket in the form of a draft pick.

As free agency opens, Phoenix needs to find a way to acquire both a starting point guard and starting power forward. They probably too want to re-sign Kelly Oubre Jr.

Although they have space under the salary cap to maneuver in this manner, they do not have unlimited money, especially considering that not only is Devin Booker‘s max extension kicking in this coming season, but because they signed that deal so early, the Suns actually lost out on about $18 million in potential cap space that could have helped them tremendously (I still do not understand the logic to forego that money just for the sake of re-signing Book a little early).

One has to imagine too that the Hawks would prefer quality of pick placement to the total accumulation of rookies this year (not to mention, Atlanta has three second round picks as well at 35, 41, and 42) and want to add experienced players this offseason rather than extending their own rebuild in perpetuity.

This is where James Jones and the Phoenix Suns should try to interject themselves – and do so quickly.

Regardless of who the Suns target in free agency this summer, be it D’Angelo Russell, Ricky Rubio, Tobias Harris, and/or Julius Randle, they will need to clear up some space to slide one or even two in.

Of course, they could work out a sign and trade, but then things can get a little messy, leaving the direct free agent signing as the cleanest and simplest way to upgrade the roster.

Josh Jackson is a player that the Suns still have very high hopes for, but as he has failed to improve his 3-point shot as of yet in his career, he remained a little too technical-prone in 2018-19 to their liking, and he is now in trouble with the law, it is the perfect opportunity to cut ties and focus on what Kelly Oubre and Mikal Bridges can give to the team moving forward.

Phoenix Suns

T.J. Warren too has been talked about at length as a player who could be on the move, although primarily because on his contract – although I would argue that he should be retained because he did  dramatically improve his 3-point shooting percentage, and his contract is nothing obtrusive.

That said, is could be big enough that if other players already on the roster and potential free agent acquisitions are bigger long-term priorities, his deal probably does get in the way.

Thanks to the NBA’s pre-determined rookie scale, teams can accurately calculate exactly what cost savings could be had by trading a player for a pick.

In this case, let’s say that the Suns focus on moving T.J. Warren, and offer him to the Hawks for the eighth overall pick. In 2019-20, Warren will earn $10,810,000 whereas the eighth overall pick will make $4,046,500 – a savings of $6,763,500. Not bad.

Let’ say then too that they offered Jackson to Atlanta for their newly acquired 17th overall pick. Josh will earn $7,059,480 this year whereas the player chosen 17th overall will cost a team $2,467,500, a potential cap savings of $4,591,980.

*Note – the rookie numbers that I have provided are the baseline, 100% rookie scale rates. Players can sign for as much as 120% and as low as 80% of the rookie scale, so the total savings presented above are estimations based on signing at the 100% rate – although obviously still close.

While I highly doubt that the two teams would make such concurrent deals, either one of those moves can secure several million dollars in instant savings that could help the Suns to acquire two of those aforementioned free agents, instead of just one.

In terms of cap management, if Phoenix offered Atlanta a deal of any two from their first round selections of eight, ten, and 17 for six, the Suns would more than likely spend more money initially if they retained both picks, although not by more than about $1,000,000.

If the Phoenix Suns are not sold on any one player at sixth overall, or if they want to swap one of their wings for a first round pick, the Atlanta Hawks are now in a better position than they had been to this point to swing a trade.

The Hawks are most definitely already cultivating offers, and James Jones should not only be one of those general managers asking what can be done, but should be doing the math as well as he figures out how to best improve his roster right away with the addition of established veterans, rather than rookies who may or may not ever pan out.