SBN Reacts: To trade or not to trade, that is the Jusuf Nurkic question (2024)

You’re sitting at a poker table in a cigar-smoke-filled room. Texas Hold ‘Em is the game and, as you slyly look at the two cards dealt before you, you know that an uphill battle lies ahead. They’re not the worst cards in the deck. You don’t have an off-suited seven and two. It is the King of Spades and the Jack of Hearts. The cards carry value — just enough to entice you into playing the hand — but they are certainly a sequence you can bet on and lose.

As the flop hits the felt, followed by the turn, and ultimately the river, you are reading the players around you. It’s not just the cards you are playing, it is the players as well. Do you have enough to win the pot? Or have you fooled yourself into believing you do?

That is where the Phoenix Suns are entering the 2024 postseason. The roster has talent, much akin to having a King in the hole. But things need to go your way break your way if you want to win the hand. You need to have some outs, some luck, or the wherewithal to pack it and fold your hand.

The team doesn’t have many outs. They need the sequence of cards to play in their favor, as well as convince other owners and general managers that making a transaction with the team is mutually beneficial.

What can Phoenix do to better their position entering next season? They’ve added a new head coach, someone who embraces offensive philosophies and has a reputation for connecting with players rather than schemes. But should they run it back with the same roster, a roster many feel is broken from a mentality standpoint?

The community is torn. The line between what actual issues exist, and how to fix the team is blurred. Everyone has their version of what the reality of the Suns currently is. And, of course, everyone knows that they are correct. If you attempt to see it from a different angle, you are wrong, misinformed, delusional, and have “institutional positivity”.

Yet, as everyone seems to know what to do and how to do it, our most recent SB Nation Reacts survey shows how different those approaches are. Jusuf Nurkic is a prime example. The community is split on how to operate with him moving forward.

49% say trade him. 51% say keep him.

Keeping Jusuf Nurkic would be a commitment by the organization truly believes it was the head coach who was at the core of the issues last season. They are committed to giving it another go with their starting five intact. They hope year two brings chemistry and cohesion coupled with Mike Budenholzer’s philosophies, and output that results in winning basketball games and making a run in the postseason.

When I speak of attitude and effort, issues this team certainly faced internally throughout the 2023-24 season, Jusuf Nurkic was a bright spot. He played with the “give a crap” I personally value (I’m not saying “we” anymore. It clearly rubs people the wrong way). His physical talents and abilities were limited, but his drive was not. He scowled, he argued, and he (unsuccessfully at times) was the fly in the ointment who played mental games with opponents.

Nurkic has lockerroom value. This aspect is unquantifiable and harder to place value upon. If the notion is that internal issues are what brought this team down, is maintaining Nurkic a solution rather than a problem?

If we are solely focused on ability, yes, he was limited. His ability to finish around the rim? Well, he shot 60.3% at the rim, which puts him in the 54%tile and gives him a C rating per BBall Index. His other “finishing” statistics? They aren’t the greatest.

So yeah, he doesn’t finish well at the rim. He does do other things well, however.

He is a connector on the offensive end, and for a team that lacked a traditional point guard, every extra quality pass by someone with court vision was needed. Per BBall Index, his playmaking talent — defined as ‘our overall Playmaking talent grade, which factors in Passing Creation Volume, Passing Efficiency, Passing Spread, Passing Creation Quality, and Scoring Gravity’ — was in the 87%tile and graded as an A- relative to those in his position.

There is always the price for value paid aspect of Jusuf Nurkic as well. Per Spotrac, Nurkic is the 15th highest-paid center in the NBA when sorted by average annual value of contracts:

• T12: Nikola Vucevic — $20 million
• T12: Jarrett Allen — $20 million
• 14: Jakob Poeltl — $19.5 million
• 15: Jusuf Nurkic — $17.5 million
• 16: Zach Collins — $17.4 million
• 17: Onyeka Okongwu — $15.5 million

What do all of those centers have in common? They are not complete players. Each has an issue with their game, thus the reason they are in the third/fourth tier of NBA centers.

When Nurkic was obtained, Phoenix did so (assumably) to create roster flexibility moving forward. Deandre Ayton has an average annual salary of $33.2 million (seventh most in the NBA). By trading him away — knowing he was the most talented player in that arm of the deal — Phoenix gave themselves more outs.

Nurkic is one of those outs.

There are the pros and the cons of rostering Jusuf Nurkic. He is someone who, on the court, is a fighter. He provides an edge that this team missed. He can’t finish well around the basket and has difficulty finishing through contact. But he is a connector, a playmaker, and someone who can feed the Big Three around him.

You can see why the fanbase is torn on what to do with him. Is he the best option in the new schemes that Budenholzer will deploy? In the past, Budenholzer likes to use a five-out offense. Not all the time, but he likes the option. Nurkic doesn’t fall in line with that.

If the Suns can move off of the Nurkic contract, which has two years and $37.5 million left on it, there is one key benefit: it gets you closer to being underneath the second apron. Nurk is set to make $18.1 million this year. The Suns are currently $17.6 million over the second apron.

If there is a team with cap space in need of a big center in the middle, the Suns should pick up the phone and start the conversations. I’m talking to you, OKC. The need for a rebounding presence was apparent in their games against the Dallas Mavericks in the Western Conference semifinals. They have the space and could easily absorb his contract. And hey, maybe we could get a playmaker out of the deal?

Will this get the Suns underneath the second apron? No. But, whether it is an OKC deal or elsewhere, it’d be a step in the right direction. Cap gymnastics need to occur to get under that restriction, which in turn would open up some flexibility.

I’m sure I’ll catch heat for the suggestion above. And I’ll get more as I roll out all of my differing ideas for trading Nurkic on an upcoming episode of the Suns JAM Session.

Am I for trading Jusuf Nurkic? Absolutely, based on the return.

The reason you traded away Ayton was to create roster flexibility. Nurkic was that flexibility. His contract is more digestible in the short term. He is coming off his best season in over half of a decade. Start making the calls. Find a better fit for Budenholzer’s system. Get younger and more athletic, if possible, or use Nurkic to fill the playmaking need.

It isn’t the worst-case scenario if the Suns cannot move him. There are other players who the organization may be more focused on trading (ahem...Nassir Little). I believe that the best return you can get on realistic movable targets is from what can be acquired for Jusuf Nurkic.

And if it doesn’t work by the 2025 trade deadline, then you start the detonator on the bigger deals.

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