Chicago Bulls
The prize with this trade is 22-year-old Lauri Markkanen, the former Arizona product who showed a ton of promise last season before regressing just a tad in 2019-20. Adding him as a stretch-four would be tremendous for the Suns’ offense, and he instantly becomes another piece that Jones can build around for the foreseeable future.
Sometimes you have to give up talent to obtain talent, and Phoenix will have to offer both Kelly Oubre and Mikal Bridges to get Marrkanen – while also taking on Cristiano Felicio‘s bulky contract (which runs through next season).
But to add a player that probably will take a step forward in a good offense right away, and looks to be the kind of go-to scorer over time that the team desperately needs, he could be the catalyst to the franchise becoming a regular playoff participant beginning potentially as early as this season, but likely by next year for sure.