After trading Kevin Durant for Jalen Green, Dillon Brooks and picks, the Suns now have a plethora of shooting guards and may need to make additional moves that could interest the Detroit Pistons.
The Suns will have upwards of $155 million invested in four players who play the same position in Devin Booker, Jalen Green, Bradley Beal and Grayson Allen for next season.
The Suns would certainly love to dump Beal on someone, but that’s unlikely, as no one wants that contract and he has a no-trade clause he can use to stay in Phoenix, which is what he says he wants.
Some believe the Suns will re-route Jalen Green, though I have seen conflicting reports on that. They have time to broaden the Kevin Durant trade to add other teams and players, and they could try to flip Green before he ever lands in Phoenix.
That won’t be easy either, as Green’s extension kicks in next season, when he’ll make a hefty $33-36 million per year over the next three. You can debate whether Green is worth that risk, but the market will not likely be robust for his services and the Suns may view him as high-ceiling player with more potential worth betting on.
It’s hard to see how a Green/Booker pairing works, but it’s also hard to see how the Suns would get anywhere equal value considering Green was really the centerpiece of the trade for them.
That could lead to the Suns making cuts elsewhere, in which case the Pistons could have interest.
Detroit Pistons trade rumors: Grayson Allen
I’ve written about Allen as a possibility before and everyone knows the deal with him: He’s an elite shooter that no one likes.
Allen is one of the best shooters in the NBA and the Pistons desperately need shooting, even if they retain Malik Beasley as expected.
You could think of Allen is an upgrade from Tim Hardaway Jr., but is he enough of an upgrade to justify paying him $16-19 million over the next three seasons? That’s debatable.
Allen is more of a shooting guard in size, which means the Pistons would be potentially left with the same problem the Suns have, which is a surplus of two guards and not enough size or shooting at forward.
There may be too much crossover between Allen and Beasley, though Allen is a tad more versatile on both ends. There is the argument that you can never have too much shooting, which I do agree with to a degree, but it has to be spread out, not all concentrated in one position.
Allen is a possibility if the Suns decide to trade from their surplus, and in the right trade (Fontecchio and a second-round pick), he could make sense for the Pistons, but it would leave them less money to invest elsewhere.