ESPN, CBS give Suns solid grade in Nick Richards trade

The Phoenix Suns have acquired a center in hopes of bolstering their big man rotation. Phoenix completed a trade with Charlotte on Wednesday to acquire center Nick Richards.

It’s not the sexy, buzzy Jimmy Butler move that fans have come to expect, but it’s a move that immediately makes the team better. The consensus around the league is that Richards helps the Suns at their weakest position.

It’s no secret that Phoenix has been looking to add a center with the current rotation of Jusuf Nurkic, Mason Plumlee and Oso Ighodaro allowing three games this season with 20 or more offensive rebounds, which is the most in the NBA.

ESPN’s Kevin Pelton and CBS Sports’ Sam Quinn both gave the Suns a B+ for the trade.

Pelton gave Phoenix a B+ because the Nurkic experiment this season didn’t work. Nurkic has been absent recently due to illness. Plumlee is shooting 56% from the field, his lowest since the 2016-17 season with an 11% usage rate. It is seventh lowest in the league for players seeing at least 500 minutes of action, according to Pelton. Undersized rookie Ighodaro is also in the bottom 10 in this category.

Richards isn’t shooting better this season (56%) but he has scored more efficiently than any Suns center in a much larger role in Charlotte (17% usage). With better floor spacing, Richards has proven to be hyper-effective. In 2023-24, his true shooting percentage of .717 was fifth-best of all NBA players who played at least 500 minutes.

Arizona Sports” John Gambadoro reported that Richards will leave for Phoenix once acclimated. In nine games this season as a starter, Richards is averaging a double-double: 11.3 points, 10.2 rebounds, 2 assists in 27.2 minutes and 1.7 blocks.

Pelton argued that Richards offered a defensive upgrade over Nurkic and Plumlee.

…opponents have made just 57 percent of their shot attempts within five feet when he’s the primary defender according to Second Spectrum tracking on NBA Advanced Stats. That’s an improvement over Nurkic and Plumlee, who have both seen opponents shoot 62 percent on such attempts this season.

Pelton also called the move financially helpful for the Suns for a team that is past the second apron. Richards is under a $5 million contract this season and next.

Quinn compares the Suns’ decision to acquire Richards to Dallas acquiring Daniel Gafford from the Wizards last season at the trade deadline. Dallas transformed a sports center into a vital fixture on the road to the Finals last season.

Quinn would go on to say that Phoenix can try the same model and attempt to emerge from play-in tournament hopeful status to become a playoff threat in the West.

Take an extremely athletic center off a dysfunctional team, put him on a better one, and watch him soar. They can say with relative confidence that the Hornets, like the Wizards a year ago, are such a team because they saw (PJ) Washington break out the moment he left Charlotte. In an NBA increasingly obsessed with costs and assets, paying market price for a viable starting center was not tenable for a team as limited as the Suns currently are. They had to try to create their own.

The Suns are currently 19-20 heading into the game against the Wizards on Thursday night. If there was ever a time for the Suns to flip the switch, it would be now. As the NBA’s unofficial halfway point, the All-Star break, is just a few weeks away. With a move aimed at remedying the team’s weakest position, Phoenix is ​​committed to turning its season around and it might not be over.