Brandon Knight Trade Rumors: 5 Teams That Should Trade For Him
3. Philadelphia 76ers
The Phoenix Suns need to get rid of Brandon Knight, and the Philadelphia 76ers need to clear their frontcourt logjam. If it comes to a fire sale, McDonough should be dangling Knight in front of a team severely lacking in backcourt talent.
No offense to Sergio Rodriguez or the hardworking T.J. McConnell, but Knight would provide the Sixers with a versatile backcourt player who could hold down the fort until point forward Ben Simmons is healthy, and could play off the ball once he returns.
The question is, what would the Sixers give up? If they’re smart, they’d push for trading Jahlil Okafor rather than Nerlens Noel. Noel and Joel Embiid have a far better chance of working together in the same backcourt than Okafor and Embiid, who have been outscored by 21.7 points per 100 possessions when sharing the court, per NBA.com.
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But the Suns — if they’re smart, anyway — would have no interest in Okafor. Noel was out of Brett Brown’s rotation after returning from knee surgery, and his public lamentations over the situation removed him even further. Noel spent more time alongside Embiid in Philly’s last game, but if the Sixers think he’s a potential locker room distraction and are playing him just to showcase him for a trade, the Suns should consider picking up the phone.
Noel’s trade value is hard to peg. On the one hand, he’s only 22 years old, could be a future Defensive Player of the Year candidate, and just averaged 11.1 points, 8.1 rebounds, 1.8 steals and 1.5 blocks per game last season.
On the other hand, he can’t shoot, his offense is very limited, and he’s been awfully injury-prone since he was first drafted in 2013. If the trade market for Noel isn’t strong though, the Suns could have enough to alleviate the Sixers’ frontcourt logjam and provide them with some backcourt talent as well.
For Phoenix, this wouldn’t be the cleanest of deals. The Sixers would probably try to lump in some kind of draft compensation, which the Suns should resist. There’s also the matter of Tyson Chandler and Alex Len occupying the center spots, with Marquese Chriss, Dragan Bender, Jared Dudley and P.J. Tucker all capable of playing the 4.
This deal would have to work in conjunction with another trade that deals away veterans like Chandler or Tucker, but if the Suns could work something like that out, it’d be hard to NOT push for a home run deal like this. If Philly gets desperate to move Noel, the Suns should at least try — even with Noel and Len both facing restricted free agency this summer — since Noel might have more upside than Len at this point.
If Noel is too ambitious or a return like Knight is too underwhelming, there are other avenues — like Ersan Ilyasova or Richaun Holmes — that the Suns could pursue to help Philly clear the logjam.
Ilyasova may be 29 and have little long-term value for the Suns at the 4-spot, but he’s also averaging 14.9 points and 6.5 rebounds per game on .471/.400/.818 shooting splits since joining the Sixers.
He could either come off the bench (making Jared Dudley expendable) or he could start, allowing Chriss to develop off the bench against other backups. After all, if the Suns are only going to play Chriss 10-15 minutes a night as a starter, they might as well aid his development by allowing him to thrive against other team’s reserves.
Plenty of people within the Sixers organization and fan base like Richaun Holmes, but if they can get Brandon Knight out of him, that’s a pretty fair exchange. He’s been squeezed from that crowded frontcourt rotation in Philly, but he’s a 23-year-old with plenty of potential and leaping ability to make him worth the potential gamble.
Holmes has averaged 6.9 points, 4.3 rebounds and 0.9 blocks in only 16.0 minutes per game this season, shooting 51.3 percent from the floor and 35 percent from deep. He’s the exact kind of young player McDonough should be targeting with his trades, even if it crowds Phoenix’s frontcourt a bit.
The problems here are that the Sixers might be content to just wait for their point forward rookie to get healthy, and they very well could receive better trade offers for Noel or Okafor on the open market. Trading for Noel would also send a bad message to Len about his upcoming free agency, and unless Phoenix could deal away Chandler, they’d have a similar logjam at the 5 to deal with.