Report: Phoenix Suns met with Marcus Smart, Tyler Ennis and Dante Exum
May 16, 2014, 12:23 AM | Updated: 12:41 am
The NBA Scouting Combine offers teams a chance to talk with some of the top prospects the draft has to offer.
In many cases, it’s an opportunity to get to know a player who you may like but has little chance of picking.
But sometimes it may serve to offer clues as to which players a team might be interested. After all, you only have room to interview 18 prospects, so you don’t waste time on someone just for the fun of it.
So the fact that the Phoenix Suns, who currently have three picks in the first round, have met with three guards at the combine may serve as a bit of a clue to their intentions.
Dante Exum met with Pistons, 76ers and Suns…
— Steve Kyler (@stevekylerNBA) May 15, 2014
Tyler Ennis has met with the Charlotte Bobcats, Sacramento Kings, Phoenix Suns, Oklahoma City Thunder and Denver Nuggets.
— Alex Kennedy (@AlexKennedyNBA) May 15, 2014
Marcus Smart has met with the Houston Rockets, Toronto Raptors, Los Angeles Lakers, Phoenix Suns and Denver Nuggets.
— Alex Kennedy (@AlexKennedyNBA) May 15, 2014
According to NBADraft.net, Exum, Smart and Ennis are all expected to be lottery picks in June’s draft, with Exum and Smart among the first six players taken.
Barring the Suns coming up lucky in next Tuesday’s lottery, that will be too early for them to have a chance. However, with as many picks as they do hold, it’s always possible they could look to swing a trade and move up in the draft.
But if they did so, would they be after one of the class’ best guards? With Goran Dragic on the roster and Eric Bledsoe appearing to be part of the team’s long-term plans, it would seem the team would have little need for any of the three.
Then again, Bledsoe is scheduled to become a restricted free agent and, probably even more important than that, it never hurts a team to do its due diligence.
