Report: Suns ‘known to covet’ Warriors’ Draymond Green
Feb 4, 2025, 5:38 PM | Updated: Feb 5, 2025, 9:57 am
Trade chatter continues to run rampant when it comes to the Phoenix Suns and Golden State Warriors as Thursday’s deadline closes in.
According to The Athletic’s Sam Amick, David Aldridge and Anthony Slater, Warriors power forward Draymond Green is a player Phoenix is “known to covet” thanks to his ties with Suns owner Mat Ishbia.
In exploratory conversations, the Warriors have only been met with an exorbitant asking price in theoretical structures — essentially everything of future value — considering the tricky spot the Suns seem to find themselves. League sources say four-time All-Star forward Draymond Green, who has an established relationship with fellow Michigan State alum and Suns owner Mat Ishbia, is among the Warriors players Phoenix is known to covet.
The news of Phoenix’s interest comes after Arizona Sports’ John Gambadoro confirmed a report from Yahoo! Sports’ Jake Fischer centering around the Warriors getting aggressive in attempting to pry Kevin Durant away from the Suns.
This season, Green is averaging 8.3 points, 6.0 rebounds, 5.5 assists, 1.0 steals and 1.1 blocks across 27.9 minutes per game (35).
The Suns’ reported interest in Golden State players doesn’t stop there, either, with forward Jonathan Kuminga also on Phoenix’s radar as it tries to improve its roster for a postseason run.
The Suns also have indicated a level of interest in fourth-year forward Jonathan Kuminga, a player the Warriors drafted seventh overall in 2021, have been protective of in most trade discussions for years and still view as part of the future. But Durant’s potential availability, and this once-unthinkable notion of him reuniting with the franchise he helped lead to two titles, has a way of altering the discussion.
Kuminga is headed toward restricted free agency after he and the Warriors couldn’t work out a contract extension to keep him around long term.
While Durant’s name has been thrown around of late, the Suns have remained focused on adding Jimmy Butler via trade to pair alongside Durant and Devin Booker.
“Phoenix, going into this trade deadline week, they are fully focused on figuring out a three-, four-, five-team trade that lands them Jimmy Butler,” ESPN’s Shams Charania said Sunday on SportsCenter. “That’s something they’re focused on, they’re motivated every single day in that Suns front office is, ‘How can we get Jimmy Butler and put him in the lineup with Kevin Durant and Devin Booker?’”
Houston Rockets contemplating Kevin Durant trade pursuit
Along with the Warriors’ reported interest in adding Durant, the Houston Rockets are another team to watch.
League sources say the Houston Rockets, whose longtime interest in the Suns’ Devin Booker is likely to be revisited before the deadline, are known to be contemplating a pursuit of Durant as well. While the Rockets (32-17) have not been interested in pursuing older stars like James Harden and Durant in the recent past, the impressive speed of their rebuild may have changed the internal equation on that front. They are currently third in the Western Conference, with every reason to believe a game-changing addition at the deadline might vault them into true title contender status.
Houston made a draft pick trade in the offseason to acquire the Suns’ first-round picks in 2025, 2027 and 2029 from Brooklyn. It was reported at the time that some of the motivation was behind having enticing trade chips for Phoenix if Durant and/or Booker were to become available.
Same story, different day for Bradley Beal
In addition to the Green and Kuminga interest, Amick, Aldridge and Slater are also reporting that Suns guard Bradley Beal is expecting to remain in Phoenix through the trade deadline.
Beal has been one of the biggest hangups in Phoenix trying to add Butler via trade thanks to his no-trade clause and $110 million left owed across the next two seasons.