Phoenix Suns trade rumors: 5 potential Greg Monroe trades

5. Brooklyn Nets

When the Brooklyn Nets volunteered to take on the remaining three years and $48 million on Timofey Mozgov‘s contract, it was to snag D’Angelo Russell as their new franchise point guard with the knowledge they probably wouldn’t need the cap space over the next few years.

However, that doesn’t mean general manager Sean Marks will be perfectly content to let the clock wind down on this albatross of a contract, especially for a player who’s averaging 5.1 points and 4.9 rebounds in 15.9 minutes per game as the starting center.

Perhaps Brooklyn would prefer to just swallow Mozgov’s contract for the next two and a half years with lowered expectations, but this team has shown flashes of competence early on and it’s quite obvious a short-term upgrade at center might be beneficial to a team that will have to wait for Jarrett Allen to be ready and has no reason to tank in the meantime.

As is the case with any and all bartering, the Suns should start by aiming high for someone like Caris LeVert:

Nets fans probably just made a face there, which is perfectly understandable. He’s shown flashes since Marks drafted him in 2016 in the wake of the Thaddeus Young trade, he’s a committed defender at the 2-spot and he’s still only 23 years old.

However, Brooklyn should also be realistic about its situation, especially now that Allen Crabbe has stolen his starting job. LeVert is shooting just 35.3 percent from the field this season and 22.2 percent from 3-point range, and while this could just be an early sophomore slump, when the Nets got their man in Crabbe over the summer, they may have inadvertently made his development that much more difficult.

But in the event the Nets are understandably committed to keeping their second-year draft selection, the Suns could inquire about another backup 2-guard, Sean Kilpatrick.

Losing LeVert might not be worth unloading Mozgov’s contract from Brooklyn’s perspective, but Kilpatrick is playing on a minimum contract, will be an unrestricted free agent this summer and has fallen out of Kenny Atkinson’s rotation, averaging just 10 minutes per game over six appearances this season.

Last year, Kilpatrick put up 13.1 points and 4.0 rebounds per game, albeit on 41.5 percent shooting. He could be a useful understudy for Devin Booker in the short-term, especially in the event Troy Daniels is thrown in as a sweetener in a future trade.

If Kilpatrick were productive in his bench role, the Suns could re-sign him to a cheap contract. However, the risk of Kilpatrick panning out and being re-signed probably isn’t worth taking on the deadweight of Mozgov’s contract, and since this Nets franchise would be majorly hesitant to put any future draft picks on the table, it might be Caris LeVert or nothing.