The Trade
Of course the Phoenix Suns get a young, exciting power forward, one who would be a strong scoring option on offense, and a not-the-worst-in-the-world defender – even if he were, if he just scored more more point than he allowed, so be it.
Regardless, with the acquisition of Aaron Gordon, the Phoenix Suns would have their starting power forward problem resolved in an instant, and with the addition of Mo Bamba, Phoenix would have a good, long-term replacement for Aron Baynes and with three-years remaining under contract.
With Gordon’s contract shrinking each season as opposed to growing, the Suns retain some flexibility to add to the roster over the course of the deal, a situation that is advantageous to any team that retains his contract (especially if his statistics take a spike up with Phoenix).
The basic lineup would look like:
PG – Ricky Rubio/Elie Okobo
SG – Devin Booker/Mikal Bridges
SF – Kelly Oubre/Cameron Johnson
PF – Aaron Gordon/Frank Kaminsky
C – Deandre Ayton/Mo Bamba
With the addition of the first round pick, the Magic receive significant cap space this offseason with all three contracts of Tyler Johnson, Baynes, and Dario Saric, and obviously with somewhat of an inside track to re-sign all three of them this summer (with Saric in particular a restricted free agent).
Thanks to former Valley of the Suns contributor Andrew Clark for presenting this trade in a conversation we had in attempting to get Phoenix a legitimate starting power forward.