The Phoenix Suns might have been fleeced by the Houston Rockets in the Kevin Durant trade, but that doesn't mean it was all bad. Jalen Green and Dillon Brooks will both arrive in The Valley with question marks hanging over them, while it was nothing short of a disaster that Phoenix didn't manage to wrestle back any of their future picks owned by the Rockets in the deal.
But what they did manage to acquire was the 10th pick in this year's NBA Draft - which did previously belong to them - to go with the 29th selection also in their possession. Already we put forward a crazy theory - that admittedly became less out there once the Durant deal went down - that saw the Suns land the enigmatic Ace Bailey.
Taking Jase Richardson is exactly what Mat Ishbia will want to do.
Jase Richardson is the son of former NBA Dunk Champion - and previous Suns player - Jason Richardson. That's hardly reason enough to take him, but it is a starting point. Really though the reason owner Mat Ishbia - and General Manager Brian Gregory plus new head coach Jordan Ott for that matter - will have interest in Richardson is because he went to Michigan State.
As you are likely all too aware, Ishbia appears to have a fascination with hiring people who went to his alma mater. That could extend to players as well, although that would be doing Richardson as disservice. It surely helps in Phoenix that he has played for the Spartans, but there's a lot more to his game than those connections.
Richardson can also play as a point guard - and in case you hadn't noticed - the Suns are seriously lacking in that department. To watch him play this season was to see a lefty with a beautiful stroke who looked more comfortable taking all manner of shots than he was setting up his teammates. But there was playmaking skills in there that can most certainly be developed.
The Suns also have a growing problem now in that Green, Devin Booker and Bradley Beal are all naturally shooting guards. To have Booker or Beal try to be a floor general again could lead to disaster, while that has never been Green's game so far in the league. Adding Richardson to that combination as a two-guard would be all kinds of ridiculous.
But if the organization believes they can turn him into a point guard who can also call his own number comfortably, the Suns will begin to claw back their reputation after the horror that was the Durant trade. You know Ishbia is probably going to want to draft him anyway, so why not talk yourself into the son of a former Sun becoming the long-term answer at the one that Phoenix desperately needs.