The Suns had championship aspirations after making big trades to acquire Bradley Beal and Kevin Durant over the past 15 months. Their first round playoff series in which they got swept by the Timberwolves showed they are a long ways away from reaching that goal.
Even worse for Phoenix is that they have very few avenues to improve their team next season. Due to the league's new restrictive second apron rules, the Suns will be limited to re-signing their own players, adding veteran minimums, or bringing in rookies.
That hasn't stopped President of Basketball Operations James Jones from believing in this core.
"A constant focus for us is to continue how to figure out and maximize Kevin Durant. No one has done it yet. I believe we'll be the first team to do it," Jones told reporters at the end of the year. "When he's playing at the highest level, he makes us a really, really good team and we're damn near unbeatable."
That's all well and good now. But if the Suns stumble out of the gate, will owner Mat Ishbia be willing to fork over a projected $104 million in luxury tax payments next season for a team that might not make it out of the first round again?
If Ishbia were open to breaking up the team, then the Suns could replenish their draft assets extremely quickly and set themselves up for a strong rebuild in the style of the Thunder. They still have pieces that could return a massive haul in draft picks, while also saving him nine figures in salary. The Knicks have already been rumored by ESPN's Stephen A. Smith as a potential landing spot for Booker. Here's what a trade would look like.
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Devin Booker Knicks trade
Here's the trade that makes sense for both the Knicks and Suns.
Suns get:
- Five first round picks
Knicks get:
- Devin Booker
Pistons get:
- Julius Randle
- Bojan Bogdanovic
Why the Knicks do it
It's obvious why the Knicks would want Booker. He's an All-NBA player who, alongside Jalen Brunson, would give New York the best backcourt in the league.
The Knicks must ship out salary to match Booker's $49.4 million owed next season. They would have to move Julius Randle, who has played at an All-NBA level for them. As good as Randle is, he's a tough player to incorporate and Booker is a huge upgrade talent-wise.
Bogdanovic would also need to be moved to get to a high enough salary to make this deal work. There were high hopes when the Knicks acquired him from the Pistons, but he's battled injuries and hasn't really fit in as well as anticipated.
The Knicks have eight picks that they can move in a trade. There will be massive demand for Booker, so they need to blow the doors off with an offer. They would send four first rounders in this proposal, including the Nos. 24 and 25 pick in this upcoming draft.
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Why the Suns do it
The Suns would get five first round picks in this deal — four from the Knicks, and one from the Pistons. This would also shed enough salary to avoid that $104 million tax bill.
Phoenix would be uncompetitive if they moved Booker off the team. A Durant trade would follow shortly for even more first-round picks. Beal would stay on, because no team would be willing to trade anything of value for the $161 million he's owed over the next three seasons. This would be a total tear down to the studs. The Suns would prioritize young players, draft picks, and salary relief.
New York has the picks part down. But as an over-the-cap team, they would have to send out as much salary as they're taking in. A third team with cap space would need to be roped in to satisfy all of the Suns' needs. That's why the Pistons are thrown into this deal.
Why the Pistons do it
The Pistons are projected to have a league-leading $60 million in cap space, per Spotrac. While that sounds great on paper, in practice they're going to struggle to use it. This free agent class is absolutely terrible. Couple that with the fact that nobody is going to want to play for a 14-win team with brutal winters, and you can see why Detroit is going to have to be creative in how it uses that space.
Detroit is desperate to get itself out of the gutter. Management badly wants to add some veterans to win now, rather than repeat the embarrassment of last season. This deal gives them a way to add a player who can create his own shot in Randle, while also paving the way for a Bogdanovic return. Those two players alone would ensure that the Pistons are at least better than last season.
That the Pistons would only have to send out one pick in order to get two solid veteran starters would be seen as a huge win for them. It is the best possible use of their cap space — they'd get a three-time All-Star in Randle who is still only 29 years old, plus a player in Bogdanovic who averaged 20.2 points per game for them last season.
The Pistons are in the driver's seat here, because the Knicks and Suns need them in order to make this trade work financially. With this kind of return, Detroit wouldn't be able to say yes fast enough.
