The Phoenix Suns have entered their second season with both Jordan Goodwin and Jamaree Bouyea on the roster, and the Orlando Magic are suddenly in dire need of one of them after a worrying-looking injury to Jalen Suggs. Not that the Suns should be open to business, but it is another reminder that the front office continues to find value in players where few others can.
Suns can leverage desperate teams for future assets with smart signings
The Magic are a team that hired a new head coach, Sean Sweeney, this summer and are looking to contend in the Eastern Conference right now. They need a veteran presence and a steady hand who can also defend at a high level at the point guard position. With Suggs now likely to be away from the group for a while, the cheaper, the better.
Goodwin ticks all of those boxes, having signed a three-year, $19 million deal this offseason, and although he has had a slow start to the season, he is still worth more to the Suns than any other franchise. He is also an important part of their second unit, but the Suns also need future assets, having given away what little they had left in the trade for Miles Bridges.
Leveraging another organization's desperation is exactly how you get the most out of a potential trade, and signing players to team-friendly deals in the hopes of turning them into something more down the road is a clever way to do this. If Goodwin is deemed too important to The Valley, and right now he is, Bouyea would be an interesting alternative.
He is a level below Goodwin defensively, but you could make the case that he is also the better scorer. He's barely making $1 million this season, and while that means the Suns would get less back in return, he will hit the open market next summer. Flipping Bouyea into a second-round pick or a younger player now should also be worth considering.
Suns loaded with veterans who can help other teams win
Goodwin and Bouyea might make sense for the Magic, but it is not hard to see Collin Gillespie generating interest or Dillon Brooks being deemed the missing piece for another group. The only player on their roster who it does not look like they could move is Bridges, and his impending extension and rough start to the campaign are the reason why.
The regular season is barely a week old, and already, injuries are making rival teams rethink their roster construction. To give the front office in Phoenix some credit, they have created a roster full of easy-to-move players who should have interest elsewhere and hopefully give the Suns assets for their own future.
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