With the Olympic Games in Paris now behind us, we have returned to the baseless offseason speculation that helps fans bridge the gap between one season and the next. No, scratch that. To a lot of people the actual basketball gets in the way of these rumors that are dreamt up regularly.
The Phoenix Suns are no strangers to having their players linked with moves elsewhere - and even though they're firmly in the second apron which makes deals harder to accomplish - Kevin Durant is a name that gets thrown out there regularly. Not that the Suns would want to move him after he looked as good as ever in winning his record-setting fourth gold medal in Paris with Team USA.
Just Nurkic's name has also appeared in rumors recently, in what is a surprisingly good landing spot for him.
There's no doubt the soon to be 30-year-old is a limited player in terms of what he can do on the court. Nobody could ever question his willingness to both do the dirty work and also get no credit for helping the Suns to 49 wins last season, but he can get bullied by the biggest rival centers out there.
Entering the second last year of his current deal, Nurkic is due around $37 million across the next two seasons. Not quite an expiring contract just yet, but the $18 million he's making in 2024-25 can be easily absorbed by plenty of teams. Harder to work out is the fact the Suns are in the second apron, but Nurkic's deal is one of the more workable ones that they have.
Best of The Valley this week - This part of Nurk's game continues to get slept on (✍️ @BarbecueBro)https://t.co/YxRzqyMNDk
— Valley of the Suns (@ValleyoftheSuns) August 12, 2024
Which is why the New York Knicks has been suggested as a great place for the Bosnian to head this summer. John Hollinger of The Athletic - while not reporting that there is interest - believes that Nurkic makes more sense in New York than anywhere else, saying; "Draymond Green and Jusuf Nurkic are two names that would make a lot of sense in NY".
Taking Green out of the equation, and for a reputable source to mention Nurkic by name is not nothing. The Knicks have fantastic wing defenders like OG Anunoby and Josh Hart - not to mention Mitchell Robinson and Julius Randle - who would more than make up for what Nurkic lacks on that end of the court.
That would free him up to be the offensive connector that he has shown he can be in Phoenix, and he'd make Jalen Brunson's life a lot easier too. Getting a deal done is harder - but if you include a third team and some second round picks - there's a scenario where Miles "Deuce" McBride would end up in The Valley.
Jericho Sims is another name that could land with the Suns, while Robinson himself is making a similar amout of money to Nurkic ($14 million next season). All of these ideas have their faults, but moving on from Nurkic is the only way outside of Grayson Allen (who might have talked himself out of his role already) that the Suns could ever hope to get better.
Cobbling together a rotation featuring Mason Plumlee, Oso Ighodaro and at times Durant at the five isn't going to cut it, so another deal to get a big onto this roster might have to go down. That's assuming it wasn't Robinson himself who came to the Suns, and his fit as a true big man - albeit with question marks over his health - looks solid on paper.
This seems a step below even a rumor at this stage, although again the presence of Hollinger means we at least have to examine what this could mean for the Suns. With head coach Mike Budenholzer having gone to visit Nurkic overseas though, this doesn't seem likely. Then again, didn't Frank Vogel once say he couldn't wait to work with Deandre Ayton in Phoenix?