The Suns brought in a new GM this offseason in Ryan McDonough, who has already begun to put his stamp on the team with a couple of critical moves.
The hiring of Jeff Hornacek as head coach seems to be a solid choice at this early stage of things, and the trade to get Eric Bledsoe from the Clippers was one that several teams around the league were trying to pull off in order to obtain the dynamic young guard’s services.
There may be more moves on the horizon in Phoenix to try to quickly correct the mistakes incurred by the previous regime, and the latest reports say that moving Kendall Marshall, whom the team selected with the 13th overall pick in last year’s draft, may be at the top of that list.
From Scott Howard-Cooper of NBA.com:The Suns have put Kendall Marshall on the trade block in hopes of getting some return on the 2012 lottery pick, several league executives told NBA.com, with Marshall at No. 3 on the depth chart at point guard at moving to upgrade the position.
“He’s out there,” said a member of one personnel department, meaning Marshall is available.
“They’re trying to attach him to pretty much any deal that comes up,” another executive said here at summer league. “If you want to talk about any of their players, they include him. He’s basically the price of admission to any trade right now.”
“I wouldn’t say he’s available,” Suns general manager Ryan McDonough, hired in May, said Monday. “Everybody has a price, right? It depends on what that price is.”
It’s important to remember that any good general manager will have a constant and continuous dialogue with others in the league who are in the same position, and that just because a player’s name is mentioned in the early stages of any trade discussions, that doesn’t mean that he’s necessarily on his way out of any particular situation.
What we do know is that the newly-acquired Bledose will almost certainly be in the starting lineup for the Suns alongside Goran Dragic in the backcourt. That would relegate Marshall to backup minutes at best, so if another team has a bigger place for Marshall available in its rotation, including him in a deal might make some sense.
It’s worth noting that Hornacek likes some of what Marshall is able to do at the point guard position, and Marshall looked good in the team’s first Summer League game on Saturday, showing no signs of weakness in terms of initiating the uptempo offense that Phoenix plans to run under its new head coach this season.
But if there are assets to be had in return for a player that new management isn’t yet sold on, then the Suns, like any well-run team, will certainly explore those options.