The Phoenix Suns are still in the process of orchestrating a trade for veteran Jae Crowder, with a number of championship-contending teams circling the 32-year-old forward.
One of those teams continues to be the Miami Heat, Crowder’s former team with whom he also went to the NBA Finals with in 2020. The loss of PJ Tucker in free agency has left a hole for the Heat at power-forward, contributing to their inconspicuous 1-3 start to the season.
The Phoenix Suns have reportedly declined a Jae Crowder deal that would have seen them acquire Miami Heat sharpshooter Duncan Robinson.
According to the Sean Deveney of Heavy Sports’ , Miami recently proposed a Robinson-Crowder trade that Phoenix quickly rejected.
"They’ve tried to see what’s there for Duncan Robinson but there really is not much of a market unless you get a team willing to play him for a year and try to flip his contract next summer. They tried with Phoenix for Jae Crowder, but Phoenix did not want Robinson,” an Eastern Conference Executive told Deveney."
This is unsurprising as literally two weeks ago we evaluated the Heat’s inability to acquire Crowder, stating that, “it’s highly unlikely the Suns would be interested in taking on Robinson, let alone the fact they’d have to aggregate another salary on top of Crowder.
Miami are doing little to increase the trade value of the four-year, $75 million contract Robinson has remaining. He is shooting 50% from three through four games, yet he’s averaging just 11.8 minutes and 6.3 points in those outings. In contrast, the 28-year-old averaged 25.9, 31.4 and 29.7 minutes in the three previous seasons.
Robinson’s clearly out of favour in a hard-style, tough Heat organization, with his complete lack of defense becoming untenable in recent times. No other team is going to want to take on the same issue, particularly a Suns team that believes they’re still very much in the championship window.
Crowder won’t be traded for Robinson, unless it’s part of a bigger package where Phoenix acquire a whole lot more. Realistically, Miami’s only chance of dealing him would be adding draft assets to incentivize a rebuilding team.