"You can have Booker": Bill Simmons floats bold Suns trade idea for Zion Williamson pairing
With the NBA in its postseason, basketball analysts have already begun speculating trade scenarios, with one involving Devin Booker getting to join Zion Williamson in the New Orleans Pelicans organization. This idea came from veteran sports personality Bill Simmons on his podcast, painting a picture of the Phoenix Suns moving on from their cornerstone player.
The Suns currently have Bradley Beal and Devin Booker sharing point guard duties, which in turn gave Phoenix a lack of depth. Losing their first two games in the NBA playoffs against the Minnesota Timberwolves, there is chatter from fans that the Suns' Big Three experiment has failed and needs to be blown up.
Simmons played with his imagination that Suns owner Mat Ishbia called Pelicans EVP for Basketball Operations David Griffin on a suggested trade to further solidify the players around Zion Williamson.
"CJ McCollum and Trey Murphy, and throw us two future picks, and you can have Booker," Simmons said.
If this trade went through, Devin Booker would form a Big Three with Zion Williamson and Brandon Ingram, all in their prime, with the New Orleans Pelicans.
On the other side, Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal will team with CJ McCullom and another solid role player with Trey Murphy. More so, they have two future first-round picks as additional building blocks to keep piling young potential low-risk, high-reward talents.
Simmons' co-host Kevin O'Connor disagreed with the idea.
"They need more than that for Devin Booker," O'Connor said. "Give me five firsts. I like Trey Murphy a lot, but he is a role player."
Is this hypothetical Devin Booker trade to join Zion Williamson possible?
While Bill Simmons speculated a scenario in which the Phoenix Suns blow up their Big Three experiment with Kevin Durant, Devin Booker and Bradley Beal, let's check if the suggested trade is realistic.
Booker starts his $224 million supermax deal next season with the Phoenix Suns, and that will be a huge contract for the New Orleans to absorb in order to pair him with Zion Williamson.
For the Pelicans, the 32-year-old CJ McCollum has $64 million and two years left on his contract, while Trey Murphy is still on the tail end of his rookie deal worth $5 million.
Adding the two first-round picks would be a match for both teams, but the bigger question is whether the Suns would agree to move on with Booker, giving him to an NBA Western Conference rival.