Empire of the Suns trade deadline preview: Greg Monroe

Empire of the Suns will be taking a look at the five most likely players to be moved prior to the NBA’s trade deadline on Feb. 8. Reviewing the player’s current role and more, they will determine who could be traded.

Player: Greg Monroe

Age: 27

Contract situation: expiring $17.8 million deal

Role on Suns: Third-string center

Season stats: 15 GP (11 starts), 22.7 MPG, 10.7 PPG, 7.9 RPG, 2.6 APG

Current standing

The throw-in to make salaries work for the Eric Bledsoe trade with the Milwaukee Bucks, Monroe earned some playing time before falling into a role of third-string center in mid-December.

With Tyson Chandler taking one game off back-to-backs, Monroe has been used in only four games since Dec. 12, a span of 18 games. The consensus reporting is that the Suns would try and make a trade work for Monroe, and if not, waive him after the trade deadline.

Trade outlook

Kellan Olson: With the heavy pullback on handing out big salaries last offseason and cap space becoming a premium, Monroe’s $17.8 million contract is a monster. That makes his expiring deal an asset if teams want to get rid of unwanted long-term money, but because it is so large, the Suns would have to take on a contract of similar size — some of which could be long-term money.

With Brandon Knight’s contract already dead weight for the time being, it appears Suns general manager Ryan McDonough isn’t likely to take on a contract like Luol Deng’s for draft picks or a young player. Besides, he has enough of those already.

What does make sense is if a team wants to move on from an established veteran who could be an upgrade for the Suns, such as the Sacramento Kings’ point guard George Hill.

Hill makes $20 million this year and goes down to $19 million and $18 million two more seasons after that, a big ask for the Suns to buy into. They would essentially have to tag out of any flexibility or free agent possibilities until 2019 when both Tyson Chandler’s and Jared Dudley’s contracts expire.

The two questions are 1) Would the Kings be ready fully to move into the De’Aaron Fox era while not valuing Hill enough as an asset to not want much back and 2) Do the Suns believe Hill is good enough to hamper their cap sheet  and as a veteran point guard to help Devin Booker win ALL WHILE instantly relegating Knight to a bench role?

I’m going to use that deal as an example of why I think there are too many moving pieces for a Monroe deal to work.

Kevin Zimmerman: No, it’s not easy to deal one of largest expiring contracts in the NBA.

Phoenix won’t want to take on long-term deals in most situations, so any Monroe trade will amount to trading huge stacks of cash with both teams completely expecting to lose their investments next summer.

A taker for Monroe needs to have several things: A need for an offensive-minded big man, likely with the bench unit, and enough defense around him to hide his lack of impact on that end. Hello, Minnesota Timberwolves.

The T-Wolves’ bench unit has been a trainwreck, leading coach Tom Thibodeau to — surprise — run his starters into the ground.

How about the Suns trade Monroe and the two-way contract of Danuel House Jr. in exchange for this long list of role players: Cole Aldrich ($7.3 million, two years), Nemanja Bjelica ($3.9 million, one year), Shabazz Muhammad ($1.6 million, two years) and Aaron Brooks ($1.5 million, one year).

Here, the Suns don’t take on too much long-term money for too long; plus, Aldrich is a reliable center who could fill in if Tyson Chandler and Alan Williams get hurt next year. Brooks also becomes, possibly, the starting point guard as Phoenix attempts to win this year.

Yes, this strips Minnesota’s bench, but it’s not like Thibs uses it as is. Monroe could be covered by Gorgui Dieng, a shot-blocking semi-stretch big, and help Jamal Crawford get up buckets. House would add shooting and he might have some game off the bounce we haven’t seen with the Suns.

Likelihood of being traded: 4/10