According to Shams Charania, the Phoenix Suns attempted to acquire Aaron Gordon at the trade deadline. But once again, management failed to find a way to make a deal.
Fans of all professional sports know that somewhere around 1% of all proposed trades actually come to fruition. For every rumor that actually makes it public, there have been dozens upon dozens of other offers that will never see the light of day – and only a handful of those public trade rumors ever come to be as well.
So when news of Phoenix Suns general manager James Jones making a late trade deadline attempt to acquire Aaron Gordon makes it public (a player who we have written about numerous times here at Valley of the Suns as a perfect target), it isn’t shocking, and the fact that it failed, is once again, disappointing.
Rumors are worthless. They’re fun and exciting when they potentially positively affect your team. But in the end, a fan begun trade rumor can be just as effective a means of getting a deal done as an actual general managers calling another one and making a trade offer.
According to Shams Charania of The Athletic, James Jones made a “late push” to acquire Gordon.
He, of course, failed.
Why though was the attempt such a “late push?”
The Phoenix Suns need a legitimate power forward in the worst way; they need a jolt of energy and excitement; and Gordon is a hometown player who would have brought more fans to seats and eyes to screens.
While Robert Sarver making some extra money makes little difference to fans, the players would have been well aware that the arena is a bit more full and that there is greater excitement around the team than had been. While we’d like to think that that sort of thing wouldn’t need to occur to elevate their play at all, there is no doubt that it does, and something that absolutely should have been kept in consideration.
Why didn’t the Suns do anything?
Rather than making a “late push,” why wasn’t Gordon a primary target?! Why wasn’t he a player that was actively sought after for months leading up to the deadline?
Why weren’t there rumors of active talks for weeks leading up to the deadline?
For starters, it sounds like another fake rumor, maybe something that the Suns strategically leaked to bring a little interest back to the team as they slide listlessly towards the end of another awful regular season – one that brings more angst that Devin Booker is actually going to demand out than excitement for management actually making a big move to catapult their chances next season.
It also seems like once again Suns management (whether it is/was Ryan McDonough or James Jones) was simply afraid to make a bold move.
Maybe it was Robert Sarver who put the kibosh on a deal until late based on other plans that he may have personally prepared.
There is of course the possibility that the Orlando Magic did not want to trade Aaron Gordon as that franchise was then able and is still going to turn their own listless season into a playoff spot (with only three more wins than Phoenix, the Magic are firmly entrenched in the eight-seed in the Eastern Conference, and although with a projected 35-47 record, one that will guarantee a first round sweep at the hands of the Milwaukee Bucks, ownership and management can still sell their fans back-to-back playoff appearances – something that the Phoenix Suns have been unable to so since 2007-08).
However, the writing is on the wall. They are not improving with Aaron Gordon, and a second straight eight-seed in the playoffs first round ouster is not an improving franchise, but one mangled in NBA Purgatory.
Could James Jones have offered nothing that would have been enticing enough to have made a deal?
Certainly in regards to contracts, Kelly Oubre would have been the ideal candidate to have been swapped, and even a one-for-one would have allowed the general core to have stayed intact.
Power forward would have been supremely improved and Mikal Bridges could just slide back into the starting three-spot – the team’s best two-way player.
That deal alone could have been enough to have made the Phoenix Suns a playoff contender in their own right this season, especially with so many more games that were coming ahead of them to have been played at the time.
Maybe the Magic wanted a first round pick.
Trade it.
This franchise has had enough first round picks that needed time to develop and that were founded on the hope that they could become the player to turn the franchise around.
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.