Polish Hammer back to Phoenix?!

Every General Manager is talking to his counterparts with every other team, and all their assistant GMs are talking to each other too.

That’s a lot of talk. A lot of talk that never goes beyond talk.

But before they die, some of those talks get leaked to media to send the internets into a frenzy.

Today’s frenzy is a rumor that the Suns have some kind of interest in engaging the Washington Wizards on the 15th pick and Marcin Gortat,

According to Ben Standig of The Sports Capitol, the Wizards are interested in trading down from the 15th overall pick if someone is willing to take on an expiring contract to ease their salary cap bloat. They are currently over the luxury tax line. Just yesterday, the Hornets swapped Dwight Howard for Timofey Mozgov just to get themselves under the tax line for next year.

Then Ben Standig shared, in this story, that the Suns are one of the team interested in talks involving Gortat, along with the Mavericks and Clippers.

The Suns are currently below the salary cap itself, meaning they can absorb up to about $5 million in extra salary coming back in a trade, which would get the Wizards most of the way under that luxury tax threshold.

Scenario 1

Suns get: #15 and Gortat

Wizards get: Non-guaranteed contracts in Alan Williams (to replace Gortat) and two of Tyler Ulis, Davon Reed or Shaquille Harrison

On the plus side, now the Suns have #15 and #16 to use both picks to move up higher in the draft for a player they want to pair with Booker, Jackson and the #1 pick.

On the down side, by absorbing Gortat now the Suns would operate as a “cap” team this summer, meaning they only have the same $9 million mid-level exception and $3 million bi-annual exception salary slots to use in free agency this summer.

Scenario 2

Suns get: #15 and Gortat

Wizards get: #16 and Tyson Chandler

The salaries are almost identical, so it doesn’t save the Wiz any money. But max player point guard John Wall and Gortat have a strained relationship, and the Wizards might want to move down one spot just to rid themselves of that problem going into next year.

For the Suns, they would only do this while the Wiz are on the clock, and only if the Suns get wind that the player they want at #16 is about to be taken at #15.

Swapping one year of Chandler for one year of Gortat — league leader in screen-sssists last year — would be a nominal change and could ensure the Suns get who they want among the “falling” talents.

Scenario 3-20

Who knows. Any number of deals could be discussed between the two teams, but the two I mentioned above are the cleanest.