UPDATE: Officially official.
NBA trade season is officially underway and the Phoenix Suns have jumped into the mix, adding Nick Richards from the Charlotte Hornets in exchange for Josh Okogie and three second-round picks, per ESPN’s Shams Charania.
Phoenix has been active in the trade market for the past few weeks as the organization has not been satisfied by the production of Jusuf Nurkic at the center position. The Bosnian big man had been completely removed from the team’s rotation of late and averaged just 8.6 points and 9.2 rebounds across his 23.7 minutes per game.
The organization will hope Nick Richards can step in and provide more adequate production at the big man spot. He is expected to take on the starting center role once he gets acclimated to the team. Richards is averaging 8.9 points and 7.5 rebounds per game but has more athleticism and is a much better rim protector. The 27-year-old will also welcome an increased role as he was buried for minutes at times in a deep and youthful Hornets frontcourt. Richards has been an incredibly effective player in a minimized offensive role, shooting the fifth-best percent from the field among all NBA players across the past four seasons (minimum 800 shot attempts).
Phoenix has greatly struggled to get production at the big man spot with Mason Plumlee being the only other true center on the roster. As a team, the Suns rank 19th in points allowed and 22nd in opponent rebounds allowed while allowing the 19th-most points in the paint. The Suns also rank 25th in team rebounding overall and were getting the fewest points of any team in the NBA from the starting center position.
For the Hornets, they will hang their hat on the addition of three second-round picks, which have become increasingly valuable under the new CBA. The Hornets have now acquired 10 total draft picks, two of which were first-rounders, since last January 2nd. Josh Okogie is an adequate rotation player averaging 6.0 points and 2.6 rebounds across his 14 minutes of play. The motivation behind adding him was simply to make the salary work but the organization will either look at him as a veteran presence to keep around on their youthful roster or attempt to repackage him to a contender that could better use his abilities.
This also has financial implications for the Suns who were looking down the barrel of a historic tax bill by NBA standards. By sending out Okogie’s $8.3 million salary and bringing back Richards on a $5 million contract, they managed to shave roughly $20 million off their tax penalties. Getting a starting center while saving this amount of money will certainly be viewed as a win-win for the franchise.
The questions are not over for this Suns team as they continue to be connected to Jimmy Butler rumors and recently reduced Bradley Beal to a bench role. While you can’t count out a team built around Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal, the organization needed a spark as they slipped to below .500 for the first time all season following a loss to the Atlanta Hawks. They were outrebounded 54-37 in this matchup and allowed 20 total offensive rebounds.
With their 19-20 record the Suns have dropped to 11th place in the competitive Western Conference. Based on odds from DraftKings Sportsbook, they hold +105 odds of making the playoffs, -110 odds of participating in the play-in tournament, +2200 odds of winning the Western Conference and +4500 odds of winning the NBA Championship.
There is still plenty of work to be done from the Suns’ perspective, but Richards is a nice addition at a position of need and can hopefully provide the spark the organization desires.
