Offseason Trade Packages for Phoenix Suns After Round-1 Sweep vs. Timberwolves

After a splashy offseason in which they acquired Bradley Beal (less than a year after they moved Mikal Bridges and Cameron Johnson for Kevin Durant), the Phoenix Suns have been eliminated from the 2024 NBA playoffs.

And they went out in embarrassing fashion.

Despite having the league's fourth most expensive roster, the Suns were swept by the Minnesota Timberwolves (who are actually third on that list). They lost these four games by an average of 15 points.

And in Game 4, after saying, "I've never been swept in my life... I'll be damned if that happens," Bradley Beal had nine points on 4-of-13 shooting, turned the ball over six times and fouled out.

Phoenix was destroyed, and it's hard to see where it goes from here.

Few (if any) teams are in as tricky a team-building situation going forward.

Running it back after what we just saw seems like a terrible idea, but that second apron is going to make it difficult for the Suns to dramatically change.

Smith later noted that because Phoenix is on track to be beyond that threshold, it won't be able to aggregate its own outgoing players in trades, take back more salary then sending out in a trade or use the mid-level exception. The Suns are limited to re-signing their own free agents, minimum contracts and signing draft picks.

The only way out of the quagmire Phoenix put itself in over the last 15 months (the Durant trade happened in February 2023) might be unloading one or more of the stars.

And below, you'll find some ideas for doing just that.

Bradley Beal to the Magic

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Bradley Beal and Paolo Banchero

The Deal: Bradley Beal for Joe Ingles and Cole Anthony

Right off the bat, I'm going to have to ask you to suspend disbelief.

First of all, Beal would have to waive his no-trade clause for any deal to go through. That alone could make this less likely.

And beyond that, it's borderline impossible to find a team that would be desperate or ill-informed enough to take on Beal and what's left of his contract. It runs through 2026-27, when he has a $57.1 million player option.

But the 30-year-old is surely the player Phoenix would most like to unload. His lack of availability was a problem all season, and the length and size of his contract is a huge part of the team's financial issues.

To find a deal even remotely believable, a couple other dominoes would have to fall.

First, the Orlando Magic would need to flame out of a first-round series in which they've been competitive with the Cleveland Cavaliers.

And second, they'd need to strike out in free agency (where they'll have $30-60 million in cap space).

Continuing their organic rebuild around Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner is probably the more prudent approach, but the Magic could use an offensive boost (they were 22nd on that end this season). And if they can't get it elsewhere, absorbing Beal's deal with that cap space could be short-term fix (with potential long-term ramifications).

Beal missed 29 games this season, but he did average 18.2 points and 5.0 assists, while shooting 43.0 percent from deep. He had an above-average true shooting percentage, while Wagner was below average and Banchero was one of the least efficient scorers in the entire league.

He'd remain a third option in Orlando, but his skills are more needed there than they are in Phoenix.

The Suns, meanwhile, would get a pair of players who would instantly enter their rotation. Both Cole Anthony and Joe Ingles can be table-setters (though the former is certainly more of the shoot-first variety), and Phoenix needed more of that all season. Far too often, its offense broke down to one-on-one opportunities for the stars.

This deal doesn't recoup any draft capital, but that's just not going to happen with the three-time All-Star. What it does is add a little passing and depth. And again, if the Suns can find anyone to take on Beal, it'll have to think about it.

Based on little more than the financial savings of this trade (Ingles has a team option for $11 million in 2024-25, while Anthony's deal tops out with a $13.1 million team option in 2026-27), it might be worthwhile.

Devin Booker to the Jazz

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Lauri Markkanen and Devin Booker

The Deal: Devin Booker for John Collins, Collin Sexton, a 2025 first-round pick (via Cleveland), a 2026 first-round pick (via Minnesota or Cleveland), a 2027 first-round pick (via Los Angeles), a 2028 first-round pick and a 2029 first-round pick (via Minnesota)

If the Suns are ready to tear this thing down to the studs and start over, Booker is obviously the player who'd command the biggest trade return.

And thanks to their deals that unloaded both Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell ahead of the 2022-23 season, the Utah Jazz have one of the deepest troves of future draft assets in the league.

With this deal, the Suns would suddenly go from having no control over any first-round picks from 2025 to 2030 to having one in each of the five drafts after this one.

They wouldn't be able to improve the position of any of those picks by tanking, but it's still a preferable situation to the one they're in now, at least in terms of draft assets.

And if Collin Sexton (who quietly may have been a top 50 player this season) and John Collins played well enough on a torn-down roster to juice their own trade values, Phoenix might be able to flip either or both for more picks before the 2025 trade deadline.

For the Utah Jazz, there's really not much to explain.

They would still have picks in each of the years in which they're sending one out. And Booker would qualify as the kind of "big-game hunting" acquisition that Jazz CEO Danny Ainge talked about earlier this month.

If they could pool together a few more of the assets they've built up over the last couple years to add a star big man, this summer could look a little like 2007, when Ainge added Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett to Paul Pierce with the Boston Celtics.

Lauri Markkanen is obviously Pierce in this analogy, and he's proved good enough to be a core piece for a contender, which is exactly what Utah would be with him, Booker and one more star.

Kevin Durant to the Spurs

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Kevin Durant and Victor Wembanyama

The Deal: Kevin Durant for Keldon Johnson, Zach Collins, a 2025 first-round pick (via Atlanta), a 2027 first-round pick (via Atlanta), a 2029 first-round pick and a 2030 first-round pick (via Dallas)

Kevin Durant was remarkably durable in 2023-24, but he turns 36 in September. That alone is going to limit his trade value a bit. If Phoenix made him available, some teams might even try to swoop in with lowball offers including just a couple picks.

The San Antonio Spurs, thanks to a pool of assets comparable to Utah's, are a team that could justify unloading more for a post-prime perimeter player like the 14-time All-Star.

And the idea of pairing him with Victor Wembanyama, who in some ways feels like the next link in basketball's evolutionary chain after Durant, is pretty intriguing.

Even at Durant's advanced age, he and Wemby would still be one of the game's best one-two punches in 2024-25. Having those two and Devin Vassell would give the team incomparable defensive length too.

For Phoenix, this is another deal that would open up some financial flexibility and recoup draft assets.

And though he's probably too old to still be considered a prospect, Keldon Johnson is still 11 years younger than Durant and a few years shy of his own prime. The Suns could develop him into a star (he averaged 22.0 points in 2022-23).

And like Utah's Collins, Zach Collins may be able to play well enough for a rebooted Suns squad to be flipped in a different deal later.

Jusuf Nurkić to the Grizzlies

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Jusuf Nurkić, Marcus Smart and Devin Booker

The Deal: Jusuf Nurkić for Brandon Clarke, Derrick Rose, a 2026 second-round pick (via Los Angeles) and a 2027 first-round pick

If, somehow, the Suns settle on running it back with Beal, Durant and Booker, trading Jusuf Nurkić might be the only way to marginally improve the roster.

And the Memphis Grizzlies are a team that could use a bruising, old-school center like the Bosnian.

Jaren Jackson Jr.'s weaknesses (including his lack of rebounding and the way he's sometimes pushed around by bigger 5s) were harder to expose when he was playing alongside Steven Adams. And he and Nurkić could recreate that dynamic.

For the Suns, this deal would largely be about getting some draft assets, but it would also be a bet that Derrick Rose might have one last productive season in him (a bold bet, for sure).

He only appeared in 24 games for the Grizzlies in 2023-24, but he averaged 8.0 points and 3.3 assists in just 16.6 minutes and shot 36.6 percent from deep. And he wouldn't have to do a ton for the Suns, he'd still get plenty of playmaking from Beal, Durant and Booker.

Rose, 35, would just provide a bit more traditional point guard play for a team that desperately needed it at times.

And though he was limited to just six games this season after coming back from a torn ACL, Brandon Clarke has played like a starting big throughout his career. He's averaged 10.7 points in just 21.3 minutes, and he has a much higher career box plus/minus than Nurkić.