Why the Suns have a case to trade Devin Booker. Plus, the NBA playoffs are near!

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Next time we speak, the regular season will be over. We’ll officially know half of the playoff matchups. And we’re going to start trying to figure out the Play-In Tournament. We made it, folks! The playoffs are just around the corner. Enjoy this weekend!

Close the Book?

Should Phoenix deal its all-time leading scorer?

As we’ve been tracking here for a few weeks, the Suns (35-45) officially became the most expensive failure in NBA history this week when their $366 million roster ($152 million luxury tax bill) was eliminated from even making the Play-In Tournament. John Hollinger wrote a devastating and scathing article about them yesterday, obliterating their impatience since Mat Ishbia purchased the franchise in December 2022.

Ishbia took a team a year removed from a NBA Finals berth and got super aggressive. His organization traded a lot of picks with Mikal Bridges and Cam Johnson for Kevin Durant. It was justifiable on so many levels, but you can question if it’s an overpay. Then, the Suns got very brash, moving for Bradley Beal to create a big three in an era of collective bargaining agreements designed to knock that idea down.

It was an impulsive risk, rather than a calculated one. I don’t mind impatient risks. They’re fun, they’re bold and they don’t affect me, my job status or my bottom line. That’s not the case for the Suns. They have no light at the end of the tunnel that isn’t a massive oncoming train made of luxury tax penalties and mediocrity. I like swinging for the fences instead of overvaluing draft capital, but there is a line to it. The Suns crossed it long ago.

In Hollinger’s piece, he suggested the ultimate move of patience: don’t just trade KD this summer — trade Devin Booker too. Why? The Suns don’t have control of their first-round pick until 2032. 2032! Cooper Flagg might be supermax eligible by then! And Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison will be telling some team not to give him the money! Not only that. The Rockets, through shrewd, patient moves, have the option to swap for Phoenix’s picks this year, in 2027 and in 2029. Utah gets their pick in 2031. The Wizards have control of Phoenix’s picks in 2026, 2028 and 2030.

Here’s the kicker. When they finally have their pick in 2032, it’ll likely be “frozen” (can’t be traded) and dropped to the end of the first round, as part of the penalty of being over the second apron two out of the next four years. Hollinger suggested moving Booker, starting all the way over, waiting out Beal’s next two years of $110 million and no-trade clause, and doing a proper, patient rebuild. He even suggested dangling KD and Booker to the Rockets for Jalen Green and all of Phoenix’s picks back.

Hollinger (feel free to read!) described that as the best-case scenario! Ruh roh!

The Last 24

How did Denver inform best player of firings?

👂 Heads-up. Nikola Jokić says he was told right before Michael Malone was fired. Big Honey accepted it. 

🙅 Access denied. Fred Katz has come up with the newest fake award out there. Best perimeter defenders. 

🏀 It’s tough. Most NBA teams actually aren’t tanking, but being on the verge of contention? It’s no picnic. 

🎧 Tuning in. Today’s NBA Daily previews the final week of the NBA’s regular season.

📺 Don’t miss this game tonight. Bucks (46-34) at Pistons (44-36), 7 p.m. ET on NBA TV or Fubo (try it free!). Detroit must win in order to have a chance at the No. 5 seed.

📺 Don’t miss this game tonight either! Grizzlies (47-33) at Nuggets (48-32), 9 p.m. ET on League Pass. Both teams are trying to avoid the Play-In. Memphis is on a back-to-back.

What’s the Deal?

How could a Devin Booker trade look?

Above, we laid out how bleak this Suns situation appears. Remember those trade ideas?  What if the Suns decide to move Durant and Booker in separate deals? Booker makes $53.1 million next season and has three years, $171 million left after this season. What would the current market/move for Booker possibly look like? Guess what! I asked John! This was his idea on a potential Booker trade:

Hollinger: “The obvious answer here is to get three unprotected or lightly protected firsts from the Detroit Pistons. Booker grew up in Michigan, rocks a Tigers hat in post-game interviews and would have an obvious fit in Detroit both in terms of the Pistons’ timeline and his place on the roster as a wingman for Cade Cunningham.

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“Meanwhile, Detroit has the salary flexibility to absorb his contract and offer Phoenix some cap relief, and could easily put multiple firsts into a deal. For instance, a package of Tobias Harris, Jaden Ivey, Bobbi Klintman, Simone Fontecchio and a signed-and-traded Lindy Waters, plus first-round picks in 2026, 2028 and 2030 for Booker and Grayson Allen would get the Suns out of the second apron and restock some of their draft and prospect equity.

“(Detroit could do a similar deal with a signed-and-traded Tim Hardaway Jr. in the place of Harris, by the way; Phoenix could legally acquire Waters in a sign-and-trade by shedding more money in a Kevin Durant trade with another team to get below the first apron).

“The Pistons have enough cap space and flexibility that they could execute such a deal and still re-sign Malik Beasley at a market rate, either with cap space or their nontaxpayer midlevel exception. On the draft compensation, I threw out three firsts as a starting point; the protection and quantity on the picks would likely involve some haggling by both sides, but it seems to me zero or limited protection would be the endgame based on other comparable recent trades.”

Playoff Scenarios!

Knicks might be tanking as West remains a mess

If you’re hoping to watch NBA basketball on Saturday, you’re out of luck. We’re getting all 30 teams playing tonight, and we’re getting all 30 teams playing during the day on Sunday to finish out the season. We don’t need to focus on the 10 teams already eliminated from next week’s action. We hope your tanking brings you what you need.

We can also recognize the Cavaliers, Celtics, Thunder and Rockets have no real reason to play their main guys. They’ll have plenty of rest next week, and risking injury to any of these guys would be pointless. But their resting could have some consequences on some playoff positioning. Here are the races to watch.

Eastern Conference

Are the Knicks tanking to the No. 4 seed? Curiously, the Knicks sat a couple starters last night, played Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns both under 30 minutes, played PJ Tucker 27 minutes (he’s played 32 minutes the last two seasons) and lost to Detroit. It happened the same night Indiana beat Cleveland (resting their guys). The Pacers are now a game back of the Knicks for third.

The Knicks play Cleveland tonight and Brooklyn on Sunday. Indiana plays Orlando tonight and Cleveland on Sunday. Really, none of the Knicks’ or Pacers’ opponents have anything to play for this weekend. Their fates are set. So, we could see the Knicks trying to avoid the Celtics for as long as possible, and try their hands at dropping to the No. 4 seed and hoping Cleveland is all regular season, no gas.

Who wants the No. 5 seed? The Pistons host the Bucks tonight, and they’re in Milwaukee on Sunday. If they win both of those games, they take the No. 5 seed. Lose one or both of them, and they’re locked into sixth.

East Play-In: Orlando is locked into seventh and will host the 7-8 matchup. Atlanta is in Philadelphia tonight. If they win that game, they’re locked into eighth and will face the Magic for the No. 7 seed. If they lose and Chicago wins at home against Washington, then the Hawks need to beat the Magic on Sunday or have the Bulls lose to the 76ers on Sunday. For Miami to move up to ninth, the Heat need to beat the Pelicans tonight and the Wizards on Sunday with the Bulls losing both of their games.

Western Conference

Race for the No. 3 seed: If the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Rockets tonight or the Blazers on Sunday, they win the Pacific Division and therefore lock up the No. 3 seed no matter what. They’d have tiebreakers over the Nuggets and the Clippers.

Let’s tackle 4-8 in the West: Let’s assume the Lakers win one of those games and lock up the No. 3 seed. We’ve still got this tight race with the Nuggets (48-32), Clippers (48-32), Warriors (47-33), Grizzlies (47-33) and Wolves (47-33). Currently, the Grizzlies are sitting in seventh and the Wolves are in eighth because of the tiebreakers. First, let’s hit you with the schedules of these five teams:

• Nuggets: host Grizzlies tonight, at Rockets on Sunday.
• Clippers: at Kings tonight, at Warriors on Sunday.
• Warriors: at Blazers tonight, host Clippers on Sunday.
• Grizzlies: at Nuggets tonight, host Mavs on Sunday.
• Wolves: host Nets tonight, host Jazz on Sunday.

The winner of Denver and Memphis tonight will take the tiebreaker in their season series. If Memphis wins that game and then somehow all five teams end up with the same record at the end of the season, Minnesota would finish fourth, the Clippers would get the No. 5 seed, the Warriors would get the No. 6 seed and Memphis would host Denver in the Play-In to play for the No. 7 seed.

This stuff can get a little complicated with the tie-breakers, so if you want to play the home version of this, here’s a little cheat sheet for the season series.

It reads left to right so the Nuggets were 2-1 against the Warriors and 0-4 against the Wolves.

• When two teams are tied, the tie-breaker is the season series.
• If that’s even, it goes to division record.
• If they’re not in the same division, it goes to conference record.
• If three teams or more are tied, the tie-breaker is win percentage in all games among tied teams.

Or … you just wait for the standings page to update!

West Play-In 9-10: The Kings play the Clippers and the Suns. Win one of those games, and they’ll host the Mavericks for the chance to play for the No. 8 seed. If they lose both games, the Mavs have to win both of their games (home to Toronto, at Memphis) to host that matchup.

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(Top photo: Mark J. Rebilas / USA Today Network via Imagn Images )

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