The Phoenix Suns made a trade Tuesday night that has everyone around the league wondering if a bigger move could be on the horizon. The Suns sent their only tradable first-round pick (in 2031) to the Utah Jazz in exchange for three future first-round picks. The picks heading to Phoenix are the least favorable of several picks owned by Utah in 2025, 2027 and 2029.
It was one of those moves that makes you wonder what other move is around the corner, because a fringe championship contender doesn’t swap around picks without it leading to the potential of landing a player, or players. Especially since the Suns have been long rumored to covet Jimmy Butler, who has grown disgruntled with the Miami Heat. Tuesday’s move could be seen as Phoenix taking a big step in trying to acquire Butler, but it’s not a foregone conclusion.
The Suns made the trade Tuesday night “without a specific follow-up move lined up,” according to NBA insider Marc Stein. Take that however you want, but we’ve seen our fair share of smoke and mirrors by teams, agents and players in the past only for the exact opposite to happen.
While it may be difficult to believe that Phoenix just wanted to flip one draft pick for three, Stein did note that the Suns still have not yet presented any trade ideas to Bradley Beal, who would need to be the one shipped elsewhere if Phoenix wanted to land Butler. Beal’s no-trade clause gives him all the power, and both he and the Suns have lamented that there have been no discussions about moving him. However, if the right situation presented itself, Beal would reportedly waive his no-trade clause.
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But even if Beal agreed to be traded elsewhere, and the Suns had enough to get Butler, the other piece to this puzzle is it would almost certainly need to include a third, possibly fourth and maybe even fifth team to get this done. Because the Suns are a second- apron team, they’re limited in how they’re able to conduct trades. Phoenix can’t aggregate players in any trades and it can’t take on more money than its sending out, which makes this whole situation complicated.
However, if what Stein is reporting is true, and the Suns aren’t just focusing on trying to land Butler, they could use those three first round picks to improve the roster in other ways. It would still likely include sending Beal (and possibly Jusuf Nurkic) elsewhere, but maybe it’s not for another aging star with injury issues, but rather a couple quality role players that amount to the same price.
We’ll find out which path Phoenix takes by the Feb. 6 trade deadline.
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