Phoenix Suns forward Kelly Oubre Jr. (3) shoots between Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry (30) and Draymond Green forward (23) during the first half of an NBA basketball game in Oakland, California, Sunday 10 March 2019. (Photo AP / Jeff Chiu)
We are just a few weeks away from the eight-game seeding finale for the 2019-20 NBA regular season. The hope is that the season will resume in the midst of a pandemic without big sobs.
If so, things will move quickly. The draft and the free agency will be quick punches to the face after the October NBA finals. So let’s prepare Phoenix Suns fans for an annoying storyline in the coming months, potentially until the 2020-21 commercial deadline – whenever that happens – it passes.
Kelly Oubre Jr. will be in commercial rumors. It is inevitable considering that he has found a home in Phoenix, has a contract that expires after the next season and is making significant progress in his career.
Athletic’s Anthony Slater is perhaps the first to point out that interest in Oubre won’t come in early 2020-21, but not just three months down the road during the NBA Draft. In the Slater series examining the Warriors’ potential off-season targets, the beat writer exposes a reason why Golden State is interested in the 24-year-old striker.
On the night of the lottery, if the order breaks just for the Warriors, it could present several intriguing commercial possibilities. The Oubre option – via a pick swap, using the exception of $ 17.2 million (trade) – is one of the best of these theoretical paths.
If the NBA Draft lottery order becomes relatively chalk, the Warriors will be in the top five and Phoenix will be in the 10 or 11 range. This could cause the suns to go up if they like a certain player, Slater suggests.
Phoenix leaps to his feet to get the prospect whose timeline and controllable contract perfectly match their young core, the Warriors walk away during the draw with at least one Oubre season (slipping into their $ 17.2 million commercial exception before it expires) and a prospect of the next lottery still believe that they will become a valuable long-term key member.
Slater points out that Warriors should be “meh” in the draft class. They should also be happy to pay around $ 30 million for Oubre – taxes will accumulate on top of the Warriors adding his $ 14.3 million deal.
In this way, Golden State could probably imagine taking on top of the Western Conference next year with Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson repatriating the injuries. Andrew Wiggins and Draymond Green will join Oubre as the five best players on that team.
All this presupposes that the suns do not want to sign Oubre again with a long-term agreement.
They were a little concerned about doing so last summer, when the two sides met in the middle with a two-year $ 30 million deal. Phoenix has also secured insurance with the surprise draft of the Cam Johnson wing.
Obviously, Suns fans can see a number of reasons why Phoenix should laugh at such a commercial offer. Even forgetting that Oubre went out of his way to root himself as Valley Boy and even forgetting Oubre is part of a five-man lineup that ranked second in the net rankings this year, there is still much to dispel from the idea of Slater.
Suns chief executive James Jones made it clear that culture cannot be changed by throwing more teens into the equation. The 2020 class draft is hardly considered strong.
Even if this becomes an unmissable-Oubre scenario, which prospects in this class are worth the jump from tenth to fifth, third or even first?
I could argue that Monty Williams sits behind LaMelo Ball behind Ricky Rubio to develop the talented young man who played in Australia last year.
Striker Deni Avdija is currently playing in Israel, doing all he can to climb the scoreboard which will remain mostly stale with no training or games going on in America. The suns may need forward power.
Georgia combo guard Anthony Edwards is too risky a project and does what Booker does. James Wiseman is redundant with Deandre Ayton.
Maybe Phoenix sees a guard like Kira Lewis Jr. or Tyrese Haliburton as a future star that isn’t worth waiting for later in the lottery.
Either way, there are lottery players worth considering alone. None of them are sure.
Going back to Oubre, the point is this: situations will arise in which teams call to remove the boy from Phoenix.
He earned it, increasing his efficiency with a lower usage percentage and an average of 19.5 points and 6.7 rebounds per game.
Teams with more financial flexibility than the Warriors and those in the lottery could run the risk of losing Oubre after a season, exchanging his Bird rights to see how it goes.
It would be surprising if Phoenix bites. The attempts of this front office to maintain the confidence of the players and not to want to shake the boat when the basketball product only needs stability are for good reason.
But yes, this will be one thing.
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