Future Suns Pick Named Top Trade Asset This Summer

The Phoenix Suns' 2029 first-round pick is a golden opportunity for other teams to pounce on the organization's potential shortcomings.

Suns owner Mat Ishbia speaks with the press during a news conference at Footprint Center in Phoenix on May 1, 2024. / Patrick Breen/The Republic / USA TODAY

PHOENIX -- The Phoenix Suns aren't exactly keen on building through the NBA Draft moving forward.

Such is life when you risk it for the biscuit by making win-now moves in acquiring Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal to pair with Devin Booker. Though the first year of the big three experiment didn't quite pan out, there's hope bigger things are on the horizon.

Owner Mat Ishbia has been quite clear that draft picks aren't exactly valued, however.

“If fans like to look in the future and say, ‘Hey, I really like that 2031 draft pick, because maybe that seventh-grader is gonna be really good and we’re gonna draft them and one day he’s gonna be a player’. You ain’t going to like the Phoenix Suns,” Ishbia told reporters at the end-of-season press conference.

“Because we’re gonna say draft picks are to get great players.”

The Suns can package their current No. 22 pick in the 2024 NBA Draft along with their 2031 first-round pick to acquire another player to win now once the draft begins on June 26.

However, Bleacher Report believes Phoenix's 2029 first is the most valuable - ranking it as the seventh-best asset on the trade market:

"The Phoenix Suns don't sound overly concerned about their present or future outlook. That makes one of us," wrote Zach Buckley.

"The 2023-24 iteration of this team never came close to having its whole match—let alone exceed—the sum of its parts. You don't make an all-in push for a veteran core hoping to win 49 games, finish eighth in net rating and get swept out of the opening round, as Phoenix did this year.

"This campaign was rough. Things could grow considerably rockier in five years' time. ESPN's Brian Windhorst, who isn't one to peddle in hyperbole, recently wrote, 'Never before has a team been this devoid of options to alter its roster going into an offseason.'

"Phoenix's draft pick collection is almost completely empty. With all due respect to the remaining Bol Bol believers, this roster is also effectively devoid of upside. And means of expanding the talent base are few and far between with the Suns on the wrong side of the second apron.

"If future-focused franchises want to short anyone's future, this is the wager to make."

Perhaps there's some truth to this, as Phoenix's top-heavy roster could be cleared of all names (hopefully save for Devin Booker) when 2029 rolls around. For as much as Ishbia wants to play damage control when talking about future controllable draft picks, the Suns knew they'd risk the big picture down the road for a chance at immediate success.

Whether that was the right move remains to be seen.