Phoenix Suns: Pros And Cons Of Trading For DeMarcus Cousins
Con: The Return To Building From The Middle
That being said, there’s an alternative to packaging all those assets into a trade package for a disgruntled superstar: Actually, you know, using them.
By now, everyone knows the draft can be a crapshoot. Alex Len looks nothing like a fifth overall pick, while Devin Booker, the 13th overall selection in his draft, looks more like a top-three pick. But has everyone forgotten the reason this franchise has been a failure since its last playoff appearance in 2010?
At the time, the front office tried desperately to retool and put a winning team around Steve Nash during his twilight years despite losing Amar’e Stoudemire. It was easy to defend, because Nash was still playing strong, he was a winner, he deserved a title after coming so close so many times, and he was always so loyal to Phoenix.
But when they shipped him away in 2012, the team wandered aimlessly under the Lance Blanks regime. McDonough was brought in and he quickly shipped off assets to position the team for a flat-out tank job, but then a funny thing happened: The 2013-14 Phoenix Suns were actually good.
That Goran Dragic-led team was a ton of fun, but it ultimately doomed the Suns for the next four years without a playoff appearance to show for it. They won 48 games, but finished ninth in the West and missed out on what most figured would be a top-three pick. The top three selections in that year’s draft? Andrew Wiggins, Jabari Parker and Joel Embiid.
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Ever since the Suns were too good for their own, McDonough has tried to build from the middle. There was the Isaiah Thomas sign-and-trade that was a home run deal in and of itself, until Dragic got sick of playing small forward and said he wanted out.
The Suns did well to get two future first-rounders out of the Dragic deal, but failed miserably in the Brandon Knight deal, panic-trading Isaiah Thomas (now an All-Star and legitimate MVP candidate) to Boston and for some reason, sending a valuable protected pick from the Lakers to Philly.
There was the Tyson Chandler signing to lure LaMarcus Aldridge, which ultimately failed. To clear space for Aldridge, McDonough dumped Marcus Morris to Detroit for peanuts, which in turn angered his twin brother Markieff Morris and led to another season of drama.
To sum up, the Suns have failed each and every time they’ve tried to assemble a playoff-caliber roster rather than commit to “tanking” and rebuilding through the draft. They’re better positioned to do that than ever, but trading for Cousins would be abandoning the youth movement.
Trading for Cousins would be Phoenix’s most successful “build from the middle” attempt yet, since he’s an actual superstar. It takes that kind of player to win a championship in this league. But it’s also true basketball is still a team game, and not only have Cousins’ teams struggled to win, but the Suns would be sacrificing quite a few players with upside to get a deal done.
Yes, Boogie is only 26. But as we’ve already covered, trading for him would deal a considerable blow to the team’s youth, including at least 23-year-old T.J. Warren, 23-year-old Alex Len, a potential top-three rookie in this year’s draft.
That deal could also include one of Phoenix’s 19-year-old rookies and another first-round selection — plus whatever else the Suns would trade away in subsequent deals to assemble a contender around Cousins. Because the moment they sign him, the clock is ticking on his free agency, and unlike Sacramento, a city Cousins loves, he owes Phoenix nothing.
The Suns could offer him way more money than any other free agency suitor, but the front office would have to show him the team is heading in the right direction first. Are all those sacrifices to rapidly assemble a contender worth taking a chance on so many moldable young players?