Phoenix Suns: 5 potential trades for a point guard
4. Markelle Fultz
Heading into his second season, Markelle Fultz is a huge question mark. Was there something wrong with his shoulder? Does he still have the yips? Is he the Philadelphia 76ers’ missing All-Star piece that trainer Drew Hanlan fixed, or a No. 1 draft bust in the making?
More than likely, a deal for a young player like Fultz wouldn’t happen until closer to the trade deadline. The Sixers want to see what he has to offer in a fully healthy season with a reconstructed jump shot. The rest of the league should be watching with interest.
If Fultz continues to look like he doesn’t have a jumper, or if he sustains another serious injury, his trade value will take another dive, and the Suns should look elsewhere. If he thrives and looks like the top prospect he was pegged to be, very few teams will be able to pry him away.
However, if Fultz’s game lands in the sweet spot between momentary flashes of brilliance and inconsistent play bogged down by nagging injuries, that’s precisely when a team like the Suns should see if they can poach a high-upside player with buy-low offer.
The Sixers are trying to win the Eastern Conference and compete for championships, so if Fultz isn’t ready to contribute and doesn’t show enough potential to make his timeline worth waiting for, Phoenix should start with an offer like this and work up from there:
Warren’s head injuries have distracted from this fact, but Tony Buckets is a useful NBA player, especially if he embraced a sixth man role like he would in Philly. He posted a career-high 19.6 points per game last season, and though they came on an awful team, he only just turned 25.
However, although Warren’s impact as a microwave bench scorer is tantalizing to think about, he’s a career 28.3 percent shooter from 3-point range and he’s a miserable defender. If Fultz is in that targeted sweet spot of trade value, Warren alone probably wouldn’t be enough to get it done for the 76ers.
If the flashes of potential are there for Fultz, the Suns may go as far as considering Josh Jackson.
The jury is still out on the 21-year-old Jackson. He has the highest ceiling of any Suns wing and drastically improved once the calendar flipped to 2018, averaging 17.2 points, 5.6 rebounds and 2.0 assists per game on 44 percent shooting.
However, he was also having a historically bad rookie year in the first half of his debut season, he reverted back to old habits in NBA Summer League and until he proves he can shoot from 3-point range, he’ll always be something of a liability on the offensive end.
Jackson would be more enticing to Philadelphia, especially as a team without a designated wing for the future other than the injured Zhaire Smith. However, both sides might hesitate to dive into an exchange of high-upside unknowns.
Something like Mikal Bridges and Dragan Bender might work (Bridges alone doesn’t work salary cap-wise), but again, this might be too much for the Suns to give up, even if the 2018-19 season reveals Bender to be a bust.
Picturing the 20-year-old Fultz growing alongside Booker and reaching his ceiling in Phoenix is tantalizing, and would certainly work for the position long-term. Unfortunately, there are too many obstacles on both sides, not the least of which is Fultz looking good enough to attract the Suns’ gaze but still raising enough red flags to convince Philly he’s movable.