Phoenix Suns: 5 Potential Trades As Buyers Before 2017 NBA Trade Deadline
1. Andre Drummond
According to ESPN’s Marc Stein, the Detroit Pistons are definitely open to discussing Andre Drummond trades, which shouldn’t be surprising since ESPN’s Zach Lowe reported last week that the team has quietly explored the trade market for Drummond and Reggie Jackson.
As one of the bigger disappointments in the East this year, the Pistons are barely clinging to the conference’s eighth and final playoff spot. As such, Stan Van Gundy could consider pulling the preemptive trigger on this core rather than wait to see if Jackson can shake off this injury-induced rust.
If Drummond is available and the Suns consider him an upgrade over Alex Len, there’s potential for an exchange here.
On the one hand, giving up Bledsoe seems counterintuitive when all the other offers on this list have been about putting together a Big Three.
On the surface, yes, the Suns would probably prefer a Big Three of Bledsoe, Booker and Drummond in this scenario, but the 23-year-old Drummond fits with the youth movement, and even better, Phoenix wouldn’t have to surrender any first round picks in this deal.
More from Hoops Habit
- The 5 most dominant NBA players who never won a championship
- 7 Players the Miami Heat might replace Herro with by the trade deadline
- Meet Cooper Flagg: The best American prospect since LeBron James
- Are the Miami Heat laying the groundwork for their next super team?
- Sophomore Jump: 5 second-year NBA players bound to breakout
That means they could put their top-five pick in this year’s draft to good use on a franchise point guard who fits in better with the youngsters’ timelines to replace Bledsoe. Starting Brandon Knight in the meantime would be painful, but it’d give him a chance to build his trade value back up from ground zero and Tyler Ulis would get plenty of run off the bench.
The Suns wouldn’t have as much pressure on them to nail Len’s restricted free agency if they had a franchise center like Drummond, and though they’d lose Bledsoe, their core of Booker, Warren, Drummond, Bender, Chriss, Ulis, maybe Len and a top-five rookie — all under 25 — would be a hell of a place to start rebuilding.
For the Pistons, this deal would make Reggie Jackson fully expendable, it’d net Detroit a temporary replacement at center with Tyson Chandler and they’d be able to ship off Jackson to address their other needs. If Chandler didn’t interest them, perhaps Len might:
Alex Len’s restricted free agency presents a problem for Detroit, but if Van Gundy prefers a young project to a 34-year-old vet on the way down, that’s another sensible avenue to take.
The Suns would bypass the whole Len dilemma and would still have a tantalizing core to work with.
If McDonough really wanted to swing for the fences, he might try to talk Van Gundy into something like this, since Stanley Johnson has underwhelmed in his second season and hardly plays off the bench:
The Suns would happily throw in P.J. Tucker’s expiring contract to get a crack at the 20-year-old Stanley Johnson, even if he’s only averaging 4.2 points in 16.7 minutes per game on ghastly .390/.302/.650 shooting splits.
However, since Johnson is only 20, it’d be far too early for Detroit to give up on him, especially when the other two pieces of the deal are an upcoming restricted free agent and an unrestricted free agent — neither of which are particularly intriguing players outside of the Phoenix area.
Bledsoe would clearly be an upgrade at the point, but that’d require the Pistons to have a separate deal lined up for Reggie Jackson. Drummond’s flaws — poor free throw shooting, inconsistent effort and plodding playing style down low — aren’t exactly the best fit for what the Suns hope to accomplish in the future either, even if he’d really help on the boards and be an upgrade over Len.
Next: 10 Potential Trades As Sellers For The Phoenix Suns
While it’s fun to think about adding a 23-year-old behemoth like Drummond and an Arizona homecoming for Johnson, it seems highly unlikely without a sweetener like T.J. Warren, Marquese Chriss or Dragan Bender thrown in, especially since the Pistons might get better Drummond offers elsewhere.