The Phoenix Suns are a playoff team. However, they still need some help. These are five trades James Jones should make as soon as possible.
I absolutely love writing these words: the Phoenix Suns are a playoff team.
Yeah, yeah. They haven’t made it just yet, but the Western Conference is not nearly as strong as many projected it would be this season, the team is much improved over the past nine years, and that current roster is taking full advantage of both improbable variables.
However, General manager James Jones should not sit on his laurels looking at the roster he constructed this offseason with the perspective of it being “good enough.”
It’s not. The core still needs some help – and it is up to the general manager to find it.
I recently broke down the roster to figure out exactly where management should find help.
The obvious position is power forward.
Whereas I once believed that Dario Saric could be the standard bearer at the position, I was wrong, and I fully admit that.
Would he be a great backup? Absolutely. But a long-term solution at starter, he is not.
So it is with that perspective that I look at the combination of the power forward position as the team’s greatest weakness as well as the fact that Devin Booker needs another star next to him not only to push him but to take some pressure off, that I look at these potential trades.
Who will be traded though, is the question.
Ricky Rubio and Deandre Ayton are’t going anywhere, so the core will guarantee include the three of them.
I would prefer to keep Kelly Oubre Jr. on the roster, but sometimes it takes talent to acquire talent, so I am open to including him in deals.
In the post where I breakdown the roster, I do discuss that I hope and wish for Oubre to be a star player, and the perfect compliment at small forward to Devin Booker.
But as he has the consistent flaw of being a below average 3-point shooter with no other major specific strengths that make him an untouchable, he must be considered in any deal.
Regardless, I am looking at these trades as a means of supplementing an already solid roster with talent that will not only take the Suns out of the current eight spot in the West (which when the playoffs begin would be a death knell as they would face the Los Angeles Lakers), and guide them at least into the Conference Semifinals.
Therefore without further ado: five post-black Friday trades James Jones should make as soon as possible.
5. LaMarcus Aldridge
The acquisition of LaMarcus Aldridge would be an entirely playoff-run kind of move. There is no future implications with him as he is only under contract through next season.
The beautiful part of this deal is the fact that the Suns could actually make it right away. They would not have to wait for the December or January 15th deadlines and should the Spurs agree, they could pull the trigger as early as possible to help the roster absorb the move and evolve throughout the remained of the season.
The Spurs only make this move if they feel they are already out of the playoffs in 2020, and while they are only two games back of the Suns at the moment for the eighth-seed, they have to see the writing on the wall.
They were seven game below-.500 just two nights ago, and even with Gregg Popovich do not have the overall talent to make a full reverse.
The deal guarantees that the Spurs miss the playoffs which gives them the best possible draft pick, while also clearing up a ton of cap space for deals this offseason.
Yes, it would be disappointing losing Aron Baynes, however Aldridge is a superior player. While a year older than the Aussie, he is a better scorer and rebounder, while also himself, as solid 3-point shooter.
Under contract for only one more season after this one, Phoenix will help to ride him to the playoffs twice, before opening up that cap space and pursuing his replacement in the summer of 2021.
New Starting Lineup:
PG – Ricky Rubio
SG – Devin Booker
SF – Kelly Oubre Jr.
PF – LaMarcus Aldridge
C – Deandre Ayton
4. Julius Randle
While not a star, Julius Randle would be a strong replacement over Saric.
His outside shooting has taken a hit in New York this season, but let his current 27.1% 3-point percentage not be troublesome to you in your consideration of this deal.
He shot 34.4% last season – with a good team, in a good offense, with a good point guard.
This season with the Knicks, he is on a poor team, with a poor offense, and poor point guard play – Dennis Smith has absolutely disappeared.
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While the Suns do lose their conditional first round pick, making it conditional helps to protect them in the event that the addition of Randle isn’t enough to carry them over the top into the playoffs.
For New York, this is a franchise that just cannot catch a break. Not only should they be big free agent power houses like Los Angeles is, but they can’t even make a great trade to force solid talent into the Big Apple.
Fascinatingly enough, they would make this deal because five of the Knicks’ top six salary earners will be free agents in the summer of 2021. Marcus Morris the only one of that group up this summer.
By swapping Randle for Tyler Johnson, they open up additional space to play with this offseason, something that they always say they are looking to do, but can never take full advantage of.
Who knows, maybe for them this will be their summer.
New Starting Lineup:
PG – Ricky Rubio
SG – Devin Booker
SF – Kelly Oubre Jr.
PF – Julius Randle
C – Deandre Ayton
3. Blake Griffin
At only 30-years-old, Blake Griffin has plenty of life left in his legs.
The first true star in this group, Griffin would absolutely help to make the Phoenix Suns a more competitive playoff team this season, and beyond.
He once claimed that he loved Scottsdale so he would have accepted signing with the franchise to be able to hang out there more often, but ended up with the Detroit Pistons when they offered him an exorbitant amount of money to do so.
The beauty of acquiring him now is that he only has 2+ years left on the deal, meaning that with each passing game, the new team that he may eventually be moved to is off the hook for more and more of that gigantic salary.
Phoenix Suns
The Detroit Pistons had hoped that he would make them a Conference contender, and while he did help get them to the playoffs and was named an All-Star last season, the roster, and the system, are not built well enough to truly compete.
Remember, I tried softening you up to the idea of trading Kelly Oubre, and while I hate to do it, and would do almost anything to prevent it, to acquire Griffin, he has to be included.
Yes, the Suns would be losing seven-years from Oubre to Griffin, and their stats are very similar this season, Griffin averaged 24.5 points last season so he absolutely still has it in the right situation, plus my gut still just says that Oubre is not a future star and I still believe that Blake Griffin is a dynamic player that can make this team much better right away.
If you are talking replacement stats too, even if Griffin only replaces Oubre’s traditional statline one-for-one this season, Cameron Johnson‘s huge upgrade at outside shooting not only improves the starting lineup at small forward, but moving Saric to the bench only helps with shooting depth there as well.
New Starting Lineup:
PG – Ricky Rubio
SG – Devin Booker
SF – Cameron Johnson
PF – Blake Griffin
C – Deandre Ayton
2. Kevin Love
If you have read this blog for any length of time, you have known that Kevin Love is basically by spirit animal.
I have wanted him on the Phoenix Suns since the 2008 draft, and while this is 11 years later (holy crap, it’s been 11 years…), he would still be a perfect fit for this team and franchise.
AND I think it would be possible to acquire him without moving Kelly Oubre – making the Phoenix Suns an instant top-four contender in the Western Conference the second Love steps on the court in purple and orange.
Fully recovered from the injuries that kept him down last season, K-Love is back to his old, stellar play, averaging 17.3 points, 11.1 rebounds, 2.9 assists, and shooting 36.4% from beyond the arc.
Having his scoring – in particular his shooting – would be a huge boost to the offense with Saric’s inability to have a big scoring game, while his rebounding would help the defense a ton.
In an attempt to keep Oubre on the roster, the Suns would have to offer some youth in Mikal Bridges while also moving an lottery-protected first round pick (it is supposed to be in the little trade image up-top, but there is a glitch in the code that won’t allow four items to be shown in one trade) with Cleveland in a complete rebuild mode, but there is no doubt that Love makes the Suns Western Conference competitors right away.
New Starting Lineup:
PG – Ricky Rubio
SG – Devin Booker
SF – Kelly Oubre Jr.
PF – Kevin Love
C – Deandre Ayton
1. Lauri Markkanen
As much as I love Kevin Love, I would still hope that James Jones can acquire Lauri Markkanen instead.
Last season he seemed like he’d be impossible to acquire, but with their season going to so sideways this season, Chicago writers see him as a player that can be moved this season.
The fact that the Suns could not find a way to acquire Kristaps Porzingis still haunts me, but the opportunity to acquire Porzingis-lite, a player who has never had serious knee injury, and who, at 22-years-old, is by far the youngest player in this group, he is a player would could easily be a core member of the franchise for many years to come.
Although not quite a star at the moment, after last season it sure looked like there was no doubt he was going to be.
But just like Randle in New York and even Devin Booker last season in Phoenix, star shooters without a point guard have a very difficult time scoring efficiently.
Add Lauri Markkanen to this roster with Ricky Rubio, and not only does he add the scoring threat that Booker needs; his rebounding is a huge help on the defensive end; and James Jones and Monty Williams could all but guarantee that his 3-point shooting percentage will spike back up to pre-2019-20 levels, and beyond.
Phoenix would have to let go with an unprotected first round here to acquire the young gun, and pick up Thaddeus Young‘s terrible contract for the next 2+ years with Tyler Johnson’s expiring contract leaving, but to acquire a potential star power forward, and with Saric coming off the bench for now and the books after this season as well, it would be entirely worth it.
The trade cannot be consummated until December 15 because of a restriction to Young’s contract, but that is still early enough in the year to figure out the details.
New Starting Lineup:
PG – Ricky Rubio
SG – Devin Booker
SF – Kelly Oubre Jr.
PF – Lauri Markkanen
C – Deandre Ayton
The Phoenix Suns are good and built to be a playoff team. James Jones needs to find that next piece, however, and do so right away to give the players not only a chance to gel prior to the postseason tournament, but also to pull themselves out of eighth place in the West – which would be the first round death of them.
Any one of these deals should help make this happen right away; each of them having their benefits, and each one of them making the Phoenix Suns the team we have long dreamt for them to be.