It is no secret that the Suns wants to trade Brandon Knight. He no longer fits on the roster and is owed a substantial amount of money ($44 million over the next three seasons). USA Today’s Sam Amick reports that Phoenix has dropped its asking price for Knight to just an expiring contract and a high second-round pick. And teams apparently still weren’t ready to make the deal.
Brandon Knight trade rumors show that the league undervalues him
The Suns reportedly asked for only a second-rounder and an expiring contract for the point guard, and nobody bit.
Justin Ford-USA TODAY Sports
This is an outrage.
Brandon Knight is not good, per se. But he is not this bad.
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- Brandon Knight is only 25 years old. It feels like he is a nine-year veteran at this point. But he came into the league at age 19 and is a journeyman only because he keeps getting traded (first for Brandon Jennings, then in the Isaiah Thomas deal). Point guards take a while to reach their potential. There’s still hope of improvement.
- Knight was not very good in Detroit, but the Pistons were quite bad at the time. Knight was actually pretty solid in Milwaukee — he was a dark horse All-Star injury replacement option, albeit in the East. The Bucks were really awful Knight’s first season in Milwaukee and decent for the following half-season while Knight was good. Knight has been quite bad in Phoenix, and Phoenix has been quite bad. This tells me that on a bad team, Knight is usually pretty bad but that on a good team, Knight might be good!
- Knight is not an atrocious shooter. He’s not a good shooter, but he’s not an atrocious shooter. On a team with appropriate spacing — something he has never experienced — he might be a league-average three-point shooter.
- Knight is fast. You can’t teach fast!
- Knight does not have the best feel for the game, but there are playmakers at every position these days. He could be a solid point guard in lineups with dominant ball handlers and some shooting. He also has the tools to be effective on defense, though it is not clear he is or has been effective on defense.
- His contract is not great, but neither is it a total albatross. His salary is about 1/7th of next year’s cap. You’d prefer a rotational guard to be cheaper, but there is reason to believe Knight could be better than a rotational guard. He could be a decent team’s starting point guard or a better team’s third guard. Well, maybe.
- It is difficult to overstate how low a price of an expiring contract and a second-round pick are. Several teams have cap space and could absorb Knight without moving a player (though you’d prefer to move a dead contract to avoid waiving a player or tying up your last roster spot). The Hawks just traded a second-round pick for Ersan Ilyasova. Mind you, Ilyasova’s contract expires in the summer, and Knight’s does not. But come on!
Let Brandon Knight into your heart and it’s somewhere between mildly plausible and a dicey proposition that he will reward your faith. What do you have to lose?
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