The Phoenix Suns are getting mentioned as a possible trade fit for Russell Westbrook
Jul 4, 2016, 4:32 PM | Updated: Jul 5, 2016, 4:59 pm
Oklahoma City Thunder guard Russell Westbrook (0) walks on the court during the second half of Game 2 of the NBA basketball Western Conference finals against the Golden State Warriors in Oakland, Calif., Wednesday, May 18, 2016. The Warriors won 118-91. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
(AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
The basketball world stood still — or didn’t stop shaking, depending on your perspective — Monday when Kevin Durant announced he will be signing with the Golden State Warriors.
Besides exploring every narrative possible, another main discussion point regarding the impact of Durant’s decision (without Jim Gray) was what the Oklahoma City Thunder do with Russell Westbrook.
As David Aldridge has tweeted, an extension at this point doesn’t make sense for the All-NBA player.
Told emphatically by league source there's no chance Russell Westbrook will do a renegotiation/extension of his contract (one yr remaining).
— David Aldridge (@daldridgetnt) July 4, 2016
That does not mean there’s no chance W’Brook could re-sign in OKC in ‘17. It just makes no sense financially to do renegotiation/extension.
— David Aldridge (@daldridgetnt) July 4, 2016
It would appear the Thunder might have to once again risk getting nothing back like they did with Durant, and now the question becomes, do they think it could happen again?
These series of right and left-hand turns has taken us to the possibility of Westbrook being traded, and taking one more left, we arrive at the question of what teams have the boatload of assets to pull off that trade.
Well, as it turns out, the Phoenix Suns are coming up.
ESPN’s Kevin Pelton gave the Suns a shoutout.
The Boston Celtics could build an offer around Isaiah Thomas as a replacement point guard and the draft picks they have coming from the Brooklyn Nets.
And teams like the Orlando Magic and Phoenix Suns might look at trading their young talent for Westbrook as a way to jump-start the rebuilding process.
Presti doesn’t want to trade Westbrook, but if he feels backed into a corner, he will chase young players and draft picks. The Phoenix Suns reportedly talked with the Atlanta Hawks about Paul Millsap, and they come armed with prospects galore, extra point guards and two future Miami picks.
The reason for this is because when looking around the league at who has all the required ingredients for a superstar trade, they have them.
Let’s hypothetically say the first is at least a pretty good NBA player with years of his prime left or a young player showing All-Star potential.
Depending on how you feel about his knees, the Suns have the former in Eric Bledsoe, and while he’s not quite on the level of other young pieces Lowe mentions like Andrew Wiggins, D’Angelo Russell or Jabari Parker, Devin Booker qualifies for the latter in my opinion.
The second would be big-time future assets, and the Suns have almost more of those than any other team in the NBA. Booker could be downgraded to this group if you feel that way about him, but there’s also recent top-5 selection Dragan Bender, recent top-10 selection Marquese Chriss, T.J. Warren, Alex Len, all of their own future picks and both Miami’s top-seven protected 2018 first-round pick and unprotected 2021 first-round pick.
Even if a team doesn’t want Bledsoe because of his knees, the Suns seem like they’d have enough to reach that highlighted mark, and that’s without mentioning Brandon Knight, Tyson Chandler and P.J. Tucker, who all have value in the league as well.
The sum of the pieces, in theory, adds up to the previous prices we’ve seen in superstar trades.
For the sake of fun, we’ve also rushed over the most important part of a hypothetical trade for Westbrook, which is the (smart) team would have to know he would re-sign if they were to match his astronomical price.
Would Westbrook re-sign in Phoenix? It’s certainly not on the same level as his hometown Lakers or the historical and very good right now Celtics, who both have those pieces as well.
If the Suns did reach that critical step, however, some will ask “should they give up so much for Westbrook?”
Of course they should. He’s one of the best players of his generation and one of the five best right now in basketball. He turns only 28 in November and has plenty left in his prime.
It’s extremely unlikely for it to happen, but this is what rebuilding teams with an overflowing amount of assets look for. Like every team in the NBA, the Suns would be foolish not to give Sam Presti a call and find out where they are at.
