NBA Trade Grades: Suns and Rockets swap youngsters, bad contracts

Phoenix Suns

On the one hand, what the Suns are getting in return for two players they traded the farm for is disappointing. Drafting Chriss cost Phoenix its No. 13 pick, No. 28 pick, a 2020 second-rounder and Bogdan Bogdanovic, and fans still haven’t forgiven general manager Ryan McDonough for surrendering a coveted, protected first-rounder (via the Los Angeles Lakers) in the Knight deal.

However, at this point, both players were sunk costs, or at least close enough to pull the trigger on a deal like this. Knight ranked in the bottom five for our projected starting point guard rankings for 2018-19, while Chriss averaged a mundane 8.5 points and 4.8 rebounds on .438/.309/.617 shooting splits during his first two years in the NBA.

Chriss regressed in his second season, with a hip injury derailing what little momentum he had built midseason. It was obvious the organization favored fellow project Dragan Bender over Chriss, especially with the latter’s occasional attitude issues, underperformance and offseason weight gain heading into his sophomore season.

Instead, the Suns took two bad players and got something of value, both for the short-term and the long-term. While Phoenix took Knight’s bad contract (two years, $30.3 million) and turned it into an even worse one in Ryan Anderson (two years, $41.7 million), Ryno’s shooting touch will help the league’s worst 3-point shooting team from last season.

Having a career 38.2 percent 3-point shooter helps space the floor for Devin Booker and Deandre Ayton. Unfortunately, Wojnarowski reports Anderson is expected to start at the 4 as the Suns pursue other trades for a starting-caliber point guard.

The latter part is welcome news; the former draws Phoenix’s league-worst defense into even murkier waters. Any defense sporting Booker, Anderson and Ayton in the starting lineup is going to STRUGGLE.

Bringing Anderson off the bench and starting Trevor Ariza at the 4 would make much more sense, since the Suns’ already atrocious defense wouldn’t be that much worse off during Anderson’s time with the reserves. The lost cap space for next summer is significant, but Phoenix can still free up the requisite space to go chase a big fish if it so chooses.

As for Melton, the rookie impressed in NBA Summer League and he is the big prize of this exchange. Though he didn’t shoot the ball well, he posted an impressive 16.4 points, 7.2 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 3.0 steals per game.

This 6’4″, 20-year-old guard could be a long-term solution for the Suns, since his elite defensive potential makes him a perfect potential complement to Devin Booker in the backcourt. If he figures his jump shot out, look out.

However, there’s no question the point guard position for next season is now an even more glaring issue than it was a day ago. Knight wasn’t the short-term or long-term answer at the 1, but he was a better option than Shaquille Harrison or two second round rookies in Melton and Elie Okobo.

Like the Rockets, more moves have to be coming to justify this trade, even with Melton’s long-term ceiling taken into account. Barring an eye-opening season from Okobo or Melton that no one sees coming, the Suns are going to be just as bad in 2018-19 if they trot out a rookie point guard instead of a more proven player.

The solution could be trading T.J. Warren for a proven 1, or it could very well be Devin Booker embracing his inner James Harden — though the organization has insisted all summer that’s not the plan.

Letting Melton and Okobo battle it out long-term for the starting 1-spot is an intriguing concept, and it justifies the lost cap space by downgrading from Knight’s bad contract to Anderson’s albatross. However, McDonough still turned two sunk costs into a rookie with potential and a floor-spacing 4 who should fit in Igor Kokoskov’s system.

Improving for the short-term was the goal for the summer, but it’s hard to be too upset about adding Ayton, Okobo, Melton and Mikal Bridges to an already young core of Booker, Bender and Josh Jackson.

Grade: B