FanPost

Why a trade for Tyson Chandler is a Plan B that Phoenix Suns should seriously consider

USA TODAY Sports


Ryan McDonough has made it clear what our Plan A is.

-"It's not likely we draft three guys and bring them to the Suns."

-"Our preference would be to trade for a star,"

We all hope that either LeBron James or Chris Bosh will exercise their player option and join Phoenix Suns this summer, but we also know that the most likely scenario is that both will sign an extension with Miami and in the event that they don't and decided to opt out, 29 other teams will be going all out to chase for their signature. Our chances are pretty slim that this will happen.

And we all believe that Kevin Love is a perfect match at our PF position. An all-star stretch four who is able to shoot threes and rebounds at the same time. But Dave King's article already pointed out that how complicated Love's trade will be and it does not look like this summer is a good time to chase for Love:

http://www.brightsideofthesun.com/2014/4/26/5655460/phoenix-suns-potential-pursuit-of-kevin-love-will-be-complicated-by

So, other than LBJ, Bosh and Love, are there any other stars that fit our Plan A's description?

Yes, I think, but it's very hard to imagine Tim Duncan and Dirk Nowitzki going anywhere else.

Dwayne Wade is starting to show some age and does not fit our need. And most of us here are not convince that it's a good time to give Carmelo Anthony and Zach Randolph a huge contract to lure them here at this point of their career.

It'll be brilliant if our Plan A can work out, but otherwise we should think hard what alternatives and options we have to make good use of our cap space and draft picks.

Plan B: to trade up the draft lottery, to sign a FA or compete the signature of a RFA or to trade for players not mentioned above that can help to improve our chances to move up the playoff ladder next year.

There are already a lot of discussions on what our chances of moving up the lottery ladder in Draft 2014 will be like and who are the FAs and RFAs that we should look at this summer, for examples, Gordon Hayward, Loul Deng, Lance Stephenson, Greg Monroe etc. I do not intend to go into further details to debate on those areas, I'll just focus on the third options under Plan B, which is to acquire a solid player who can help our team to win more games next season via trades.

First, let us take a look at what are the major weaknesses of the Suns where the management should attend to next season:

1) Interior Defense and Rim Protection: We were swept by Memphis Grizzlies and have troubles handling team with premier scoring big man the entire season, and it's not a coincidence.

2) Rebounding: We need to cut down on opponents offensive rebounds. Miles Plumlee can't contend shot and rebound at the same time, Channing Frye is never a good rebounder, Alex Len is still too raw to play long minutes.

3) Post scoring and big man that can roll to the basket effectively.

4) A third play maker that can share the load when either Goran Dragic or Eric Bledsoe is injured.

The fourth issue about a third play maker does not look so critical now due to the progress of Ish Smith and Archie Goodwin, and we can still use our draft picks to choose a rookie that can share some of the work load.

In my opinion, issue #1 and #2 are what cost us most this seasons and our win rate should improve considerably if we can at least win a fair share of games from team such as Memphis Grizzlies, Chicago Bulls, Detroit Pistons etc.

Signing a SF like Gordon Hayward, Loul Deng will not change much in terms of our top 3 weaknesses. It will probably make us even more entertaining as a team but we are still going to be abused by those teams mentioned above and big man like Dwight Howard, Tim Duncan and Al Jefferson etc.

It's not like we are short of firepower at the wing position. Assuming that we are going to re-sign PJ Tucker this summer, we should have adequate perimeter protection. Thus, we should list the paint protection issue as our top priority in my opinion. That's why I will like to suggest that Phoenix Suns should look at the possibility of a Trade with NY Knicks for Tyson Chandler with Indy's first round pick and our own second round pick.

The reason for Phoenix Suns to do the trade:

It may seem like age has been catching up with Tyson Chandler's this season, but I think his performance could be affected by his injury earlier this season, and his stats is actually not too bad, even though NY knicks fans seem to dislike him a lot.

Overall GP MIN FGM FGA FG% 3FGM 3FGA 3FG% FTM FTA FT% OREB DREB REB AST TOV STL BLK PF DD2 TD3 PTS +/-
2013-14 55 30.2 3.5 5.9 59.3% 0.0 0.0 0.0% 1.8 2.8 63.2% 2.9 6.7 9.6 1.1 1.3 0.7 1.1 2.6 16 0 8.7


He still recorded 16 double doubles in 55 games, rebounds at 9.6 per game and score at a 59.3% FG% despite a bad year.

Anyway, we all know that Tyson Chandler is always among the top defensive big man in the league, he match up well with those big mans that can giving us all sort of problems in the past season and can be the defensive anchor in the paint that we need.

Let's check out this video to refresh our memories of what Tyson Chandler can be like as a top defender:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPMHJkvDdJA

He is the type of player that can help to address to our top 3 concerns, except perhaps post scoring, which he is probably quite limited in terms of offensive skill sets but he is quite effectively at pick and roll and is a threat rolling towards the baskets. At least he is able catch the passes dish to him unlike Miles Plumlee.

Pick and roll with Jason Kidd:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9eCTnsY2cM

P&R with Jeremy Lin:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wz9dWYC0IxA

P&R with Chris Paul:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEpA4ELB13M

P&R with Raymond Felton:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l54Dd1EIn_s

The trade does not mean that we are giving up on Miles Plumlee and Alex Len, but simply because we need a more reliable big man to help us fight for a playoff spots while our young centers need time to develop and mature.

Besides, Tyson Chandler contract of $14.6m will expire in a year. This means that we will still have financial flexibility if we want to chase for a big man free agent in 2015, the list includes Kevin Love, LaMarcus Aldridge, Brook Lopez, Marc Gasol, DeAndre Jordan and Al Jefferson.

If Suns decided to sign Gordon Hayward, Luol Deng or Lance Stephenson instead, we are most likely tied up with a near max contract for the next four years, in addition to the Eric Bledsoe extension which will give us very little flexibility in terms of cap space next season.

If the Tyson Chandler experiment didn't work as plan, we can still look for a possible trade partner by the Feb deadline, since his expiring contract should have some trade value. The best part of the trade is that we do not have to make major changes to the core of our 2013/2014 team so that we can build on a proven combination.

The reason for New York Knicks to do the trade

Their team sucks and they have no cap space nor draft picks to improve their team.

They have close to $74m cap space tied up on the front court quartet of Melo, Amare, Bargnani and Chandler next season. Although Melo can opts out and may accept a slight discount to resign for a longer period, it's unlikely to change their cap space situation by much. No one in the league will be willing to take over Amare or Bargnani's contract.

They desparately need to get young, and since Tyson Chandler does not seem to be a good fit to their current system and his contract is going to expire in a year anyway, it makes sense for them to look for some team who is able to net them a pick or two and preferably a trade exception to enable them to chase for a young FA or RFA this summer.

The problem is most team with high picks are not contender anyway and won't be interested in trading a high first round pick for a one year rental of Tyson Chandler. More probable trade partner includes:

Dallas Mavericks. But they do not own any first round picks, we can beat them in the bid if we can offer Indy's 27 pick and our own 50 pick.

OKC. They have a 21 pick from Dallas and their own 29 pick. But I doubt that they are willing to give up both for the trade and most importantly they do not have the cap space to absorb Tyson Chandler's contract and will need to include Kendrick Perkin's in the trade. That will probably kill Knicks interest as they will be better off by using the Trade exception to pursue a young free agent like Gordon Hayward, Greg Monroe etc.

I think there is a good chance that NY Knicks may accept the trade.

Please share your thoughts on the above.