Marquese Chriss, not Dragan Bender, is who the Phoenix Suns should include in their trade package for Kyrie Irving.
According to Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN, the Phoenix Suns are willing to trade Eric Bledsoe, the Miami Heat’s first-round pick in 2018 and Dragan Bender for Kyrie Irving.
Like Chris Tucker said in Friday, exasperated:
"“Wait a minute! That’s not enough!”"
Since the Phoenix Suns are unwilling to include Josh Jackson or Devin Booker in a trade to acquire Irving, Marquese Chriss – and not Bender – is who the Suns should include in their trade package.
No disrespect to Bender but in the NBA he hasn’t shown much outside of stretch-four potential. Could he blossom into a Dario Saric or Ersan Ilyasova-like player? Possibly. However, he’s too much of an unproven commodity to be seen as a prospect that can move the needle for the Cavs or, conversely, to be a part of their future.
Chriss is the prospect who has shown two-way potential. He’s filling up highlight reels with chasedown blocks, athletic finishes above the cylinder, shots from behind the arc and midrange, flashy post moves and footwork and, last but not least, the ability to put the ball on the floor and attack the rim.
A 20-year-old second-year pro and 6-foot-10 power forward with his skill, versatility and athleticism doesn’t come along too often. That’s why it’s understandable for the Suns to want to keep him.
However, if they want Irving they’ll have to improve their offer.
Because T.J. Warren is on the final year of his rookie contract, he’s not a player that the Cavs’ should accept in place of Bender. However, outside of Warren, Chriss, Jackson and Booker, there are no other young prospects for the Cavs to salivate over.
Booker scored a career-high 70 points last season and made himself nearly untouchable with that performance. Jackson, the fourth-round pick in the 2017 NBA Draft, is an unproven commodity. He was also considered to be the best two-way prospect in his draft class and on draft night, there was a bevy of teams vying for his services.
Aa a result, it would seem that Chriss is the player they have to sacrifice in order to acquire Irving, a scoring machine who will put fans in the stands and increase the significance of the franchise because he’s a champion, an otherworldly clutch performer and a MVP-caliber player. A player who averaged 25.2 points per game while conceding a fair amount of the ball-handling duties that he inherits with his position to LeBron James. An alpha male.
Bledsoe is one of the top point guards in the league, having averaged 21.1 points and 6.3 assists per game last season. He’s an athletic slasher who is almost an “anti-Irving” with his ability to excel on the defensive end but his issues shooting from deep. The problem with Bledsoe, aside from shooting 33.4 percent from three-point range for his career, is that he’s injury-prone. Bledsoe only played 70 games three times in seven seasons. In every other season, he played fewer than 50 games.
The Cavs can’t give up Irving for anything less than Bledsoe, Chriss and the Miami Heat’s 2018 first-round pick.
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*All stats referenced from www.basketball-reference.com