The fire sale of the Boston Celtics continues.
The arms race in the Western Conference continues.
The Phoenix Suns are tied with the San Antonio Spurs for the eight seed in the West with the now healthy Oklahoma City Thunder lurking just four games back. The Suns seem like the team that could end up on the outside looking in. Again. So they are doing something about it, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports.
Boston is finalizing a trade to send forward Brandan Wright to the Phoenix Suns, league source tells Yahoo Sports.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) January 9, 2015
Phoenix is sending Boston a future draft pick for Brandan Wright, absorbing Wright into an exception, league source tells Yahoo.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) January 9, 2015
Phoenix is sending Boston the first-round pick that it owns via Minnesota, league source tells Yahoo Sports.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) January 9, 2015
Sorry Oklahoma City but the Phoenix Suns will not go quietly into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light… or your playoff chances.
Boston had gotten Wright as part of the Rajon Rondo deal with Dallas.
This is a great deal for the Suns on a few levels. For one, that pick is lottery protected for the first two years of the deal, and with the Wolves likely in the lottery those years then it becomes two second rounders. No big loss for Phoenix.
Next, Wright is on an expiring $5 million contract, so he is not a long-term burden and the Suns can try to re-sign him this summer.
Then there’s this — Wright can flat-out play. And is a good fit in the Suns system. If you missed him when he was getting key minutes in Dallas as Tyson Chandler’s backup then you should know he gave them 8.8 points on 74.8 percent shooting, plus he was a good defensive rim protector. He had a PER of 25.8 in Dallas. He is athletic, bouncy, and loves to run the floor, and can be strong in the pick-and-roll with all those quality guards the Suns have laying around. Plus he can defend for them. He is a quality backup for Alex Len (sorry Miles Plumlee, it’s going to suck for you).
For the Celtics? You get assets toward rebuilding, plus you are worse this year so your lottery odds get better. If you’re going to rebuild, go all in.
Is this move enough to keep the Suns as the eight seed out West?. Maybe, maybe not. I’m not going to try to predict the bottom of the Western Conference. Do you think San Antonio or OKC will miss the playoffs?
But this makes things more interesting.