The Phoenix Suns are just wasting time
While I am not in for the selling of picks the way Sarver did in the Seven Seconds or Less era, for Phoenix to have received a starting power forward, one young enough to still grow (especially with the core), yet a veteran with 5+ years of experience, why not do everything possible to make it happen?
Combine that with the fact that the Suns were likely to have had a worse draft position with the acquisition of Gordon, not to mention the fact that this draft is widely considered to be very thin, even if the pick had somehow managed to have risen to the top, would Suns fans be all that disappointed in losing out on the opportunity to add either Anthony Edwards or LaMelo Ball to the roster?
And anyway, by the time the Suns select in the teens, there isn’t anyone there that is going to impress any more than the addition of Aaron Gordon would have.
Phoenix too could have instead potentially flipped both Tyler Johnson at the time (an expiring contract) and swapped Mikal Bridges plus a pick as well giving Orlando a better two-way player with more upside than Oubre, while also creating instant offseason cap space (should that have been the route they would have wanted to go).
With either deal, James Jones would have improved the roster overall, while also making the kind of splashy move that fans would have loved to have seen. Gordon’s addition too would have also still provided the franchise with some cap space over the summer to continue to add pieces around the current core.
But all that being said, with this rumor now leaked, it seems a little fishy in it’s timing, it seemed like an ill-fated plan anyway, and regardless: once again, nothing happened.
Sure, a deal can still be done this summer, but the problem with that is that because it didn’t happen during the regular season, another year is lost and the constant feeling of malaise that has perpetuated this franchise for the last ten years was only continued.