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Roster Swap: Phoenix Suns and Sacramento Kings. Would you do it?

By Adam Maynes

SACRAMENTO, CA - MARCH 23: Deandre Ayton #22 of the Phoenix Suns goes up for the shot against the Sacramento Kings on March 23, 2019 at Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, California. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2019 NBAE (Photo by Rocky Widner/NBAE via Getty Images)
SACRAMENTO, CA - MARCH 23: Deandre Ayton #22 of the Phoenix Suns goes up for the shot against the Sacramento Kings on March 23, 2019 at Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, California. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2019 NBAE (Photo by Rocky Widner/NBAE via Getty Images) /
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SACRAMENTO, CA – MARCH 23: Deandre Ayton #22 of the Phoenix Suns goes up for the shot against the Sacramento Kings on March 23, 2019 at Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, California. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2019 NBAE (Photo by Rocky Widner/NBAE via Getty Images)
SACRAMENTO, CA – MARCH 23: Deandre Ayton #22 of the Phoenix Suns goes up for the shot against the Sacramento Kings on March 23, 2019 at Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, California. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2019 NBAE (Photo by Rocky Widner/NBAE via Getty Images) /

The 2018-19 Sacramento Kings are in many ways who the 2019-20 Phoenix Suns hope to be. But with SAC one year ahead of the Suns in development, even with a re-vamped roster, would you consider making a full-roster swap? Let’s analyze this scenario.

James Jones may end up being a complete dud of a general manager as so many of his predecessors have been before him. However, one thing can be said of his first full offseason at the reins of the Phoenix Suns: after nine-years of dysfunction and losing, he was not afraid to nearly start all over, and he had really made a huge impact on the roster already.

As such, the roster that he has designed for this coming season and beyond is nothing like the one that the franchise ran on the court last season – to dismal results.

In the meantime, the Sacramento Kings have dragged themselves from the basement of the Western Conference in recent years, and through far more successful drafting than the Suns have over the last decade, not only built themselves a very nice young core, but also set themselves up to be decent player in trade and free agency for the next few years potentially putting together a regular playoff team for many years to come.

If you had asked many fans of the Phoenix Suns last season, they would have done a one-for-one swap of the rosters (even at the loss of Devin Booker and Deandre Ayton) as the Kings were already in a position of competitive play with the opportunity to take additional and significant strides through the right acquisitions of veterans.

But then the summer of 2019 hit, James Jones took a hatchet to the roster that Ryan McDonough had built (if “built” is the apropos term), and in the ashes of the former youngest team in NBA history, he has put together a veteran-laden roster surrounding the still young yet far more successful core of Booker, Ayton, Mikal Bridges, and Kelly Oubre.

Add on top of the much better roster is a head coach with the utmost respect around the league (at a level not seen since Alvin Gentry) and because of all this, the Phoenix Suns should not only be far  more competitive this season than they franchise has been since Jeff Hornacek was at the helm, but they are very possibly already better  than the Sacramento Kings.

Or are they? That’s what I am setting out to find out right now, and whether or not it would arguably still be in the best interest of the Phoenix Suns as a franchise to make a full roster swap with the Sacramento Kings (obviously in a totally NBA2K-type fantasy world), or not.

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