How and Why Karl-Anthony Towns Will Become a Member of the Suns.
How can the Phoenix Suns acquire the second piece of the desired ‘Big 3’ with the acquisition of the second big piece in Karl-Anthony Towns?
Karl-Anthony Towns has had his best season of his career thus far, averaging nearly 27 points and 12 rebounds a game while shooting 51% from the field and an impressive 42% from 3.
Per 100 possessions, he is averaging 37 points and 16 rebounds.
Although Towns is under contract through 2024, the Phoenix Suns do not and should not wait until then to make a move to bring him in.
In the short career that Devin Booker has had, it is clear that will be a superstar, and lead to the Suns to where they will be down the road.
Making him happy the past few years has seemed difficult given the team’s performance, lack of stability at the head coaching job, and lazy ownership. Booker’s happiness needed to be addressed, and it looked as though early on he was happy and the team was winning.
As of late though, the injuries, lack of finishing games, and overall poor performance have raised questions as to if this team has leveled out to where they are supposed to be this season.
Booker has been a shell of himself lately, but he will need to figure himself out.
However, as of now, this is his team and will continue to be his team and his happiness has to be at the for-front of what the franchise does moving forward.
With the issues surrounding Deandre Ayton this season, especially with his consistent inability to being available to play for various reasons, it might be the perfect time to look to shop his potential for a star player that would begin to help separate the Suns from the worst of the West.
There are a couple of options that the Phoenix Suns could explore in attaining the big man, Towns.
The first, and possibly easiest is sending Deandre Ayton, Mikal Bridges, and Tyler Johnson, and possible a protected first-round pick to Minnesota in exchange for Karl-Anthony Towns and Robert Covington.
The second and more outlandish is a three-team deal involving the Suns, Timberwolves, and Pelicans.
The deal would send Deandre Ayton to the Wolves, and Mikal Bridges and Tyler Johnson to the Pelicans. Towns would be headed to the Suns while veteran point-guard and expiring contract Jeff Teague would be headed to the Pelicans.
Lastly, the Pelicans would be sending guard Jrue Holiday to the Wolves and young guard Josh Hart to the Suns.
So the Suns would walk away with Towns and Hart while also shipping out Tyler Johnson’s massive (albeit expiring) contract.
*Note: both of these trades were successful according to ESPN’s trade machine.
Hearing all of this, many Suns fans might be in awe of what the team is giving up.
However, Towns and Booker are best friends and that is important in keeping Booker in Phoenix.
The next aspect is the Suns are getting the best player in the deal, which should be valued more than anything in trades like these.
Lastly, it would be evident that the Suns would be the destination for D’Angelo Russell (potentially as soon as this coming summer), completing this new ‘Big 3’ in the Valley.
Towns is only one year older than Booker at 24 and he has already been an All-Star twice in his very young career. He is obviously also one of the best players in the league.
Linking him with Booker, Oubre and for now Rubio, would complete a roster that would be a playoff team, and a team that will challenge some of the top teams in the West.
These trades should not be looked at as the Suns giving up on Ayton or Bridges, and obviously it would be very difficult to pull the trigger because both of those players could be very good and Ayton could eventually be an All-Star himself.
The issue is that Towns is already established himself as a top center in the game, with all the tools Sun’s fans want Ayton to have while only being three years older.
The Suns have drafted players based on what they might be, and kept players based on what they could be as well.
Ayton could be a generational player and hope he is. However, Towns already is a generational player, so there would be no waiting for him to be great.
With Ayton, there is also the possibility that he never truly figures it out and becomes what he is expected to develop into.
In the event that the Suns keep Ayton and he does not reach what we all want of him, the Suns will quickly lose leverage in trying to trade him, just like every other draft pick the Suns have moved off from.
With Towns, he is already better than Ayton and is still only getting better.
Next. All I want for Christmas is Robert Sarver to sell the Phoenix Suns. dark
Like Booker, Towns has never really had great support around him and has been in a losing culture most of his career.
Linking Booker and Towns would be a duo going forward that is going to be constantly producing every year for at least ten more years. Both players are approaching the prime of their careers and when that happens the Suns will not only in the playoffs every year, but competing for championships.