As the NBA trade deadline approaches, the final flurry of rumors could inform what moves (if any) the Phoenix Suns decide to pursue.
Among those rumors include the Suns’ reported interest in young San Antonio Spurs power forward Jeremy Sochan. The Suns are among “several teams” who have checked in on him, according to HoopsHype’s Michael Scotto. The target makes sense, provided Phoenix’s reported interest in improving the power forward spot.
A former No. 9 overall pick of the 2022 draft, Sochan has mostly fallen out of San Antonio’s playing rotations this season. After three straight seasons notching at least 25 minutes per game to begin his career with the Spurs, the 22-year-old out of Baylor is averaging just 13.1 minutes per game this season and hasn’t started any of the 27 games he’s appeared in.
He is currently sidelined with a quad injury.
Sochan no doubt would like a change of scenery. He’ll be a restricted free agent at season’s end, so getting more of an opportunity to play and showcase his talent would help him in the pursuit of a new contract this coming summer.
Could the Suns trade for Jeremy Sochan?
As Scotto reports, “Suns center Nick Richards was brought up during exploratory talks, sources said. However, such a move would push the Suns further above the luxury tax, which is not ideally something Phoenix wants to do.”
Richards has long been considered the prime trade candidate for Phoenix this season, provided he’s on an expiring contract and hasn’t received consistent minutes with Mark Williams and Oso Ighodaro getting the most run at the center spot (with No. 10 overall draft pick Khaman Maluach waiting in the wings).
Moving Richards for Sochan could benefit both teams, but pushing further into luxury tax territory when Phoenix’s goal appears to be slipping below that threshold is clearly a sticking point.
If, however, the Suns were to trade Richards and Nigel Hayes-Davis’ expiring contract to San Antonio for Sochan, Phoenix could get their power forward target while getting out of repeater tax territory. Whether the Spurs would have interest in doing that merely for different expiring depth pieces is unclear.
Sochan averaged 11.4 points, 6.5 rebounds and 2.4 assists per game for the Spurs a season ago while converting 53.5% of his field goals. Getting that type of production for the rest of the season is worth the gamble for the Suns, even if they don’t intend on keeping Sochan beyond this season.
The drawback with a guy like Sochan is he’s a poor outside shooter — career 28.7% shooting from 3-point range, so he's not going to help in terms of spreading the floor. He also doesn’t knock down his free throws with consistency (under 70% shooting from the charity stripe in three of his four pro seasons).
Still, as a young talent and former lottery pick, the change of scenery potential for a guy playing for a new contract could give the Suns another jolt ahead of the stretch run toward the playoffs.
Sports Illustrated’s Tom Petrini ranked the Suns among the top possible trade destinations for Sochan. So, at the very least, Phoenix is recognized as an ideal situation for the young veteran.
Scotto reported that the Spurs spurned a New York Knicks trade package including Guerschon Yabusele, citing that San Antonio didn’t want to pay his contract beyond this season.
Perhaps they’d be open to moving Sochan to Phoenix for expiring deals since there's no long-term money coming back, but it stands to reason they’d likely demand draft pick compensation to incentivize a trade. Logically speaking, the Suns would be apprehensive to include even second-round picks given their dearth of draft assets.
Moving Richards and adding Sochan both make sense on paper, so we'll have to see if San Antonio fails to find better offers elsewhere ahead of the Feb. 5 deadline.