UPDATE 2:48 p.m.: Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reports the deal has been agreed to, and will send Gerald Green, Miles Plumlee, and a lottery protected 2014 first round draft pick to Phoenix in exchange for Luis Scola.
“The trade is consistent with our stated plan to continue to acquire young assets,” said Suns President of Basketball Operations Lon Babby, in the team’s official release. “With this trade, we now have the potential for three first-round picks in the 2014 draft and five first-round picks in the next two drafts.”
“Although Luis’s time here in Phoenix was short, he certainly ingratiated himself to all of us in Phoenix with his hard work and professionalism. He will be an important contributor to a contending team in Indiana.”
“We are excited to add Miles and Gerald to our young core group of players,” said Suns General Manager Ryan McDonough. “Miles was one of the best players in the Orlando Summer League, and Gerald’s scoring ability and athleticism will help us as we continue to build a team that plays an exciting, up tempo brand of basketball.”
12:54 a.m.: As the Suns continue to look at deals that will get them younger while they attempt to rebuild from the ground up, another one of the team’s veteran players is on the verge of being sent out of town.
The Pacers are close to completing a deal with Phoenix to acquire Luis Scola, according to a report from Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports.
The other players or picks involved beyond Scola on both sides are unclear at this point, but the details are expected to be worked out overnight and finalized at some point on Saturday.
An early stage of the discussions may have involved Danny Granger, but Marc Stein of ESPN.com reports that Granger is now not part of the package.
Scola can still play a bit, and his decrease in minutes last season in Phoenix should be viewed in context of what was going on there, and not as some sort of indication that Scola’s skill set had diminished so rapidly. The Suns threw in the towel once they replaced Alvin Gentry with Lindsey Hunter mid-season, and once that happened, the rotations were so erratic that nothing could be gleaned positively or negatively from a particular player by simply looking at the minutes he received.
In Indiana, Scola will only need to do better than Tyler Hansbrough did for them off the bench, which is setting the bar relatively low, even for a player like Scola who will be 33 years old while entering his seventh NBA season.
Scola has a low cap number of just $4.5 million this year, and is only partially guaranteed the $4.8 million in the final year of his deal the following season. That makes players like Gerald Green or Ian Mahinmi a match to come back to Phoenix in a trade from a salary standpoint, although the Suns will no doubt try to get draft picks in the deal, as well.
Scola has carer averages of 14.2 points and 7.5 rebounds per game, and appeared in all 82 contests for the Suns last season.