Suns, Rockets Top Targets After Jimmy Butler Traded to Warriors for Wiggins, More
We've had the shocking Luka Dončić trade to the Los Angeles Lakers, the far less surprising De'Aaron Fox move to the San Antonio Spurs and the inevitable Jimmy Butler trade to the Golden State Warriors, all in the past few days.
It's been a whirlwind few days, and we still have until Thursday to go.
That means a number of teams could still be working the phones, looking to make upgrades to solidify for a postseason push. The Phoenix Suns and Houston Rockets, in particular, are a pair of fascinating teams to monitor.
The Suns have been a regular fixture in trade talks this offseason, initially thought to be a Jimmy Butler suitor, though in recent days Kevin Durant has become a name making the rounds as well.
It has always felt like the Suns would try to build around Devin Booker and Durant, however, rather than shipping out the 36-year-old superstar. The preference almost assuredly would be to deal Bradley Beal instead, but his prohibitive contract and no-trade clause have jammed up those works.
Barring a last-minute deal that sends Beal elsewhere—or some moves around the margins of the roster—the Suns probably aren't going to be able to make any substantial changes. And most of the big names rumored to potentially be on the move ahead of the deadline have already changed addresses, outside of Chicago Bulls' center Nikola Vučević.
It's hard to see any viable pathway for major improvement for these Suns, outside of swapping around some role players. Phoenix appears largely stuck with the core group it has, outside of Beal waiving his no-trade clause. And even then, most teams probably view a contract that will pay him over $50 million per season as a negative asset.
The Rockets, on the other hand, could absolutely be major players in the trade market given their talented young core and future draft assets. But to this point, they've seemed to be very content with keeping their current group intact.
Well, barring one player becoming available, that is—the aforementioned Booker.
As SI.com's Chris Mannix reported Tuesday, "Houston continues to take a very disciplined approach to this trade deadline. The Rockets, arguably the NBA's biggest surprise this season, have not expressed any interest in engaging with teams about any of their top young talent. As one exec put it, 'Unless you are calling them about Booker, they are not interested.'"
The Suns almost assuredly won't be trading Booker, who is firmly in his prime at 28 years old and is the face of the franchise.
Durant remains possibly in play for the Rockets, though it feels unlikely. Sam Amick, David Aldridge and Anthony Slater of The Athletic reported Wednesday that the Rockets "are known to be contemplating a pursuit of Durant as well. While the Rockets (32-17) have not been interested in pursuing older stars like James Harden and Durant in the recent past, the impressive speed of their rebuild may have changed the internal equation on that front."
Ironically, the trade that actually could go down for both the Suns and Rockets involves each other. It's just that the Suns won't part ways with the player the Rockets would most want (Booker), and the Rockets aren't about to break up their young core for a player like Beal (or perhaps not even for Durant).
So those two potential dance partners, at least for now, remain on opposite ends of the floor.
Finally, one player who could interest both teams is Brooklyn's Cam Johnson, though the Nets reportedly aren't shopping him and SNY's Ian Begley reported that "Teams monitoring the situation this week didn't think anyone would make an offer strong enough to acquire Johnson."
So like all of the other possibilities mentioned above, this one can be safely filed away in the "not going to happen" bin. But then again, if Dončić can be dealt, anything is possible.
