The Phoenix Suns are trying their best to turn things around after a few tough seasons at the bottom of the Western conference and after swing a deal for Clippers stars Eric Bledsoe and Caron Butler, the team may not be done dealing, as reports say Kendall Marshall is now on the trading block.
The Suns have already been mentioned in trade rumors for Marcin Gortat and while those reports have started to fall off, these new reports are much more pressing. According to NBA.com, the Suns have legitimately put Marshall on the trading block and they are hoping to put him in a deal with someone else on the roster and that could possibly be Gortat. Writer Scott Howard-Cooper reports that league executives have said that Marshall is available and that general manager Ryan McDonough, despite his talk of not looking to trade Marshall, is doing just that.
The team said that Bledsoe and Butler are part of the future of the team, but now that future may not include Marshall, who was taken with the No. 13 pick last year, but that was a different regime and a different front office. The team this year selected Alex Len with the number five pick and while some have been worried about his ankle injury, comparing it to other big men like Greg Oden and Andrew Bynum, the Suns have been cautiously optimistic about his return by training camp.
The Suns likely feel that they can trade Marshall since they already have Goran Dragic, Eric Bledsoe, Shannon Brown and rookie Archie Goodwin on the roster and Marshall may have helped himself look more attractive with some strong play in the Vegas Summer League. McDonough has spoken about Marshall and his development this offseason, but that doesn't mean he won't decide to trade him if the right deal comes along and he has also spoken about Bledsoe and Dragic playing together, which should eat up plenty of minutes for the other players on the roster.
Last season Marshall played 14.6 minutes in 48 games behind Dragic and now that the team has acquired Bledsoe as well, they may want to clip Marshall for draft picks or other pieces to build around if they don't see him as the future. The Suns went 25-57 last season and have plenty of weak spots on the roster and after ranking 21st in the league in points per game, they may try to flip Marshall for a more experienced and established scorer. Gortat likely isn't going anywhere until the team sees how Len is progressing, but if they feel like he will be healthy this year before the start of the NBA schedule. They could package the two players together for draft picks or depth down the line.