Lakers News: 4 Realistic Suns Trade Targets For Los Angeles

Phoenix comes to The Crypt tonight.

The revamped (and revitalized?) Phoenix Suns are coming to Crypto.com Arena tonight, boasting perhaps their most talented team since the "Seven Seconds Or Less" days of Steve Nash, Amare Stoudemire and Shawn Marion. Yes, I'm counting the Chris Paul/Devin Booker/Mikal Bridges/Deandre Ayton core that went to the 2021 NBA Finals.

We felt this represented a perfect opportunity to take stock of what assets on the Suns could realistically be gettable for LA.

1. Yuta Watanabe

I wanted the Lakers to sign the sharpshooting ex-Brooklyn Nets wing over the summer with their $4.5 million bi-annual exception, which they instead (smartly) allocated to Taurean Prince. Watanabe somehow signed with the Suns for a bargain-bin veteran's minimum deal, an absolute steal for one of the league's elite shooters.

2. Grayson Allen

The deeply unlikable 3-and-D swingman, a fouling machine, is a pretty solid three-point shooter and, while not a good defender, at least a committed one? Allen was pretty terrible against the Dubs. He missed all six of his field goal tries, though he did grab four rebounds and dish out two dimes.

3. Nassir Little

He's got upside to spare, but may be a break-glass-in-case-of-emergency kind of wing fit on a deep Phoenix club. Were the Lakers to acquire him, he'd essentially be in competition with Cam Reddish and Max Christie for that reserve shooting guard spot. He's a bit easier to trade for on a non-minimum, $6.25 million contract. Little played just 2:53 against the Warriors, taking (and making) just one field goal, a three.

4. Keita Bates-Diop

The 6'7" combo forward was completely squeezed out of the Suns' rotation on opening night against Golden State. He started a majority of his games last season for an admittedly tanking San Antonio Spurs club, and has some upside as a versatile 3-and-D option. Last year in San Antonio, the 27-year-old out of OSU averaged 9.7 points on .508/.394/.793 shooting splits, 3.7 rebounds, 1.5 assists and 0.7 steals per bout. Think of him as a way more raw Taurean Prince. Should LA move on from Rui Hachimura at the trade deadline to upgrade, say, its point guard position, he'd be worth a flyer for some kind of conditional future draft equity.

Obviously Kevin Durant and Devin Booker would be nice to have, too, but there's no way Mat Ishbia and James Jones are surrendering either of those two studs. Bradley Beal is on a hefty contract relative to his health (by the way, he'll miss his second straight game tonight with a back problem) and ball-stopping shenanigans, and would cost more than he's worth in a trade. Ditto for Jusuf Nurkic -- a plodding, ground-bound big man who's missed 50% of his regular season games over the past few seasons. And there's absolutely no way the Suns would surrender Josh Okogie or Drew Eubanks, both on minimum contracts, to a Pacific Division rival without taking back some kind of insane draft capital.

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