Trades are exciting, aren’t they? We are in the midst of what has become the most important transaction window in the NBA. On December 15th, a large swath of players became trade-eligible. On January 15th, almost
the entire league will be trade-eligible.
This window before the February 5th trade deadline has every fanbase buzzing. What can the Warriors get for Jonathan Kuminga? Should the Pistons go in on either Lauri Markkanen or Trey Murphy III? Will Anthony Davis be moved? Every team has a question, and the Suns are no different.
What makes the Suns different is their lack of assets. Any move the Suns make will likely include the accrual of draft capital, almost certainly of the second-round variety. It is highly unlikely that the Suns would be trading anyone worthy of a first-round pick. Devin Booker isn’t going anywhere this deadline.
In fact, Bright Side’s own Bruce Veliz put together a great article on which Suns are most likely to be dealt. If you haven’t already, I highly recommend this read!
The Suns’ most likely to be moved this season are without a doubt Royce O’Neale and Nick Richards.
O’Neale is making 10.5 million dollars per year, and his contract expires at the end of the 2026-27 season. He is shooting 43.1% from three on 6.8 attempts per game (as of the end of the 12/29 game against WAS). It isn’t hard to find out why he is a valuable piece. He is a useful player with a contract that is both highly movable and easy to integrate with other contracts in exchange for one larger contract.
Richards is a different story. After being miscast into the starting role last year, he has fallen out of the rotation entirely this season. Mark Williams and Oso Ighodaro are both outplaying him. To top it off, he is on an expiring $5 million contract. He is easy to move, for sure. Unfortunately, no matter what team he is on, he will only be depth. That does not mean teams won’t have interest. There have already been rumors about a potential Toronto Raptors deal for Ochai Agbaji.
The last player that I think should be considered to be moved is Jalen Green. At 23 years old and with a $33 million contract, he could be a player many teams have interest in. Especially a team like the Kings, who are looking to move a member of their old guard in Domantas Sabonis. Green has only suited up for one full game this year, and the Suns have found success without him. He also shares a position with the franchise cornerstone. There are good arguments for trading Green.
That said, there will always be a good argument for trading away any player. It wasn’t that long ago that we were exploring the possibility of trading even Devin Booker. But what is the case for keeping these guys?
Royce O’Neale: Spacing
The Suns are a decent shooting team. They are currently ninth in the league in threes attempted and tenth in both makes and percentage. Phoenix is hitting 14.2 threes per night, and Royce O’Neale accounts for just over 20% of those!
Trading Royce would mean increased minutes for Dunn and Fleming. While this may excite those of us looking to the future of this team, it should also incite dread for those of us watching in the present. Both guys are sub-30% three-point shooters this season. Losing Royce means losing 29.5 minutes per night of one of Phoenix’s best shooters. Booker, Brooks, and Gillespie need that floor spacing to operate in right now.
The returns of Grayson Allen and Jalen Green won’t solve this problem either. Both of those guards are out of position when put at small forward and are incapable of playing power forward. Royce may be out of position at the four, but at least he can soak up a few minutes there.
Nick Richards: Depth
The Suns feel like a deep team. A “next man up” atmosphere has taken over Phoenix. This has been helped along by the incredible play of Collin Gillespie, a supposed back-up, and Jamaree Bouyea, who started the season by getting cut by Milwaukee in favor of an Antetokounmpo brother.
That depth has helped catapult this team into contention for a playoff spot. The atmosphere can only continue to exist if Phoenix actually remains deep, however.
Last season, the Suns started out the year with Jusuf Nurkic, Mason Plumlee, and a second-round rookie in Oso Ighodaro as their potential center rotation. This season, the Suns have been blessed with the addition of Mark Williams. Williams has been a high-motor machine for the Suns that makes a visible difference when he is on the court. Despite a career-high of 44 games played going into this season, Mark Williams has played 27 out of 32, a 69 games played pace. He has stayed healthy, and he is the main reason Nick Richards has become expendable.
But we cannot gloss over that health. Williams rarely plays back-to-backs currently and is one tricky fall away from regaining his made-of-glass reputation. Should that occur, and Williams misses a significant portion of time after a Nick Richards trade, then the center rotation becomes Oso Ighodaro and Khaman Maluach.
Maluach has played well in the G-League, and I am as high on him as anyone else who has watched him play, but he is not ready to be relied on by a playoff team. To put that on him would not be beneficial to his development, nor to the Suns playoff chase. By keeping Richards, the Suns keep insurance through the rest of the season for their center rotation.
Jalen Green: Potential
Jalen Green is the type of player you could dream on. He is a 23-year-old with a reputation for being an iron man before this season, playing 93.6% of all Houston Rockets games across his first four seasons.
Green has come up in trade rumors not because he isn’t a good player, but because he has a good contract. Because Green makes over $30 million per year, he is an ideal inclusion in any star trade. He would be required, for instance, in any Domantas Sabonis trade that made sense for Phoenix. Given that he shares the shooting guard position with Booker, it is easy to see why the Suns would consider this.
Jalen Green is the only trade piece the Suns have that could realistically net them a high-quality power forward that could slot in with Gillespie, Booker, Brooks, and Williams.
Unfortunately, Green isn’t so valuable that he could garner a return for a star player that would truly move the needle for this team. If the best return possible is potentially the worst defender in basketball, the Suns would be wise to just wait and see what the 23-year-old, 20-point-per-game player could become.
As a minor note, Green also represents insurance. If the day does come when Devin Booker decides to request a trade, Phoenix has a ready-made scorer they can slot into his position while they continue to build. Green is no Booker, I know. But at the same time, no one on this roster is other than #1 himself.
The Playoffs
This team is capable of making a playoff run already. In the first year of a rebuild, that is more than you could have expected. I thought this team was gritty and certainly better than most national pundits going into the season. But I still expected them to be firmly in the Play-In hunt, not challenging for the sixth seed.
Instead of taking the big swing, the Suns could explore locker-room continuity and steady internal improvement throughout the season as a means of getting better.
I’m not proposing that Phoenix should never make another move. But for now, the Phoenix Suns have exceeded expectations for the 2025-26 season, and each of these players brings something this team needs. Maybe the best move Brian Gregory can make at the deadline is to let them play it out this year. No one can say these guys haven’t earned that opportunity.
