Phoenix Suns are not opposed to drafting a point guard
Jun 11, 2013, 7:23 PM | Updated: 7:45 pm
Last summer, the Phoenix Suns spent their first round draft pick on point guard Kendall Marshall, then went and signed point guard Goran Dragic in free agency just days later.
It seemed a little curious, because the team’s big money acquisition would essentially block its lottery pick from seeing the court.
Well, both Marshall and Dragic are still on the roster, which means one would think the team has little interest in using the number five pick in this year’s draft on a floor general, right? Not exactly.
“The Suns are absolutely, 100 percent not against drafting a point guard, even though they have Goran Dragic,” Arizona Sports’ John Gambadoro said on Burns and Gambo Tuesday. “So anybody that thinks they won’t draft a point guard…not so fast my friends.”
Gambadoro said the players most intriguing to the Suns are Michigan’s Trey Burke, Kansas’ Ben McLemore, Indiana’s Victor Oladipo and Syracuse’s Michael Carter-Williams. Burke and Carter-Williams are point guards, while McLemore and Oladipo are off guards.
Should it come down to the latter two, Gambadoro says it’s essentially a toss-up for the team.
“They definitely like both players, but I don’t know that one guy has an edge on the other two weeks before (the draft),” he said.
Then there are those point guards.
The Suns, Gambadoro reported, came away very impressed with Carter-Williams after his workout with the team, as the 6-foot-6 player shot the ball well. However, if the Suns decide to go the point guard route they will likely have to choose between him and Burke, who was the consensus national player of the year in 2012-13. There’s no knowing which of the two the team prefers, but it does seem like they’re more interested in adding to their backcourt rather than their frontcourt.
That said, should Kentucky’s Nerlens Noel fall to them at five, they’d really have something to think about.
“I know the Suns like him too,” Gambadoro said.
Noel is coming off ACL surgery and likely won’t see action until December, at the earliest, which is why the projected top pick could slide a bit.
Assuming he doesn’t, Gambadoro says the Suns will likely choose one of McLemore, Oladipo, Burke or Carter-Williams.
