In the summer of 2005, the Phoenix Suns agreed to a let a young Joe Johnson go via sign-and-trade. Johnson, dissatisfied with prior extension talks, as well as wanting a bigger offensive role, ultimately asked to leave.
The Suns granted his request, letting him walk in a trade that netted them Boris Diaw, who some saw as a better fit, albeit a less talented player. Sound familiar?
Now, just over 18 years later the Suns have made a similar move by trading away Deandre Ayton.
On media day, owner Mat Ishbia framed the trade as the Suns acquiring a better fit in Jusuf Nurkić. The trade has been extremely polarizing with some seeing the value of letting a disgruntled player go, while others hate the return.
The Johnson trade was equally as divisive when it went down, but there are quite a few more parallels aside from everyone’s reaction to it. Back in 2004, the Suns became one of the most dynamic teams in the league with the acquisition of Steve Nash.
Nash was the focal point of a “Big 3” that included him, Amar’e Stoudemire, and Shawn Marion. Joe Johnson was a young and up-and-coming 24 year-old wing who had been traded to the team a couple of years earlier.
In that 2004-05 season, Johnson made a jump to borderline all-star, averaging 17.1 points per game with a 55.6 true shooting percentage. The Suns had a tremendous year but ultimately fell to the eventual champion San Antonio Spurs in the conference finals.
After the season Johnson asked the Suns not to match his contract offer from the Atlanta Hawks, as he was upset with how contract extension talks had gone the previous summer. Reportedly, the sticking point was over $5 million dollars. This event during Robert Sarver’s first year of ownership served as an early indicator of his unwillingness to spend.
When talking about that period in an interview more than a decade later, Johnson also cited his desire to evolve as a player as another reason why he left. He stated, “I just knew that I was a better player than what people knew.”
At the Portland Trailblazers’ media day, Ayton inferred that he had asked for a trade from the Suns.
Like Johnson, it seemed a lot of the damage had been done during his initial extension negotiations. In the summer following the Suns’ Finals loss, leadership balked at offering Ayton the max.
The following year, they made him go out and get a max offer from the Indiana Pacers before matching it. Just like Johnson’s contract negotiations, those two summers were overseen by Sarver, as Matt Ishbia had not bought the team yet.
Here were #Suns majority owner Mat Ishbia’s opening comments from media day.
— Trevor Booth (@TrevorMBooth) October 4, 2023
Touched on the four pillars (community, fan experience, winning and culture) he’s focused on with the team. Also said he feels the Suns have the best team in the league. pic.twitter.com/e49QnH3B9P
Ayton has also dropped hints over the years about wanting a bigger role. When Chris Paul had joined the team, Ayton had to simplify his game to accommodate the point guard.
It worked to great success early on, but as Paul aged and dealt with injuries, Ayton’s role surprisingly didn’t change much. Perhaps a bigger issue than letting Johnson and Ayton walk, was that an emphasis wasn’t put on their growth as players.
After trading Johnson, the Suns continued to be a force in the league for the next half-decade. Nash repeated as MVP, Stoudemire and Marion etched themselves into Suns lore, and Boris Diaw became a valuable rotational piece for the team. But those Suns never made it to a Finals.
They made it to two more conference finals, but just weren’t able to get over the hump. One of the problems they ran into was bad injury luck, particularly to Stoudemire. Within three seasons, Marion and Diaw had left the team.
Johnson went on to become a star in Atlanta, making six out of the next seven all-star games while averaging 21 ppg. There’s no guarantee the Suns would’ve won a championship if they retained Johnson, but it’s undoubtable that their odds would’ve been increased.
At the very least, he would’ve provided a safety net for injury and extended the Suns’ championship contending window past 2010.
The book is yet to be written for this current Suns team and Ayton following the trade. The first chapter will be authored this season, and Suns fans are hoping they didn’t get it spoiled 18 years ago.
Like Stoudemire, it’s no secret that the Suns big three have valid injury concerns, as does the newly acquired Nurkić. An injury to one of them, without Ayton to fill the void, could completely derail a championship run.
It’s also not out of the question that Ayton takes a jump on offense with a heavier workload. We saw him have stretches of that kind of dominant play when players were out with injury. One could argue that the Suns wouldn’t need Ayton’s offense on this current team, but the same was said after the Johnson trade.
As we saw with their various playoff defeats to teams like the Spurs over the years, you could never have too much offense, and Diaw nor anybody else was slowing down the greats like Tim Duncan.
If the Suns manage to capture their first title in the next few years then, unlike the Johnson trade, this debate becomes moot.
The Ayton trade, and any other move made to get them to this point will be justified. If they don’t, and encounter some of the same pitfalls that befell the team following Johnson’s departure, we’ll look back on the Ayton trade as another Suns what-if.