Jae Crowder has made it clear in recent weeks that he wants off the Phoenix Suns.
The front office, similarly, has quietly indicated that they too area open to a split.
With all parties in alignment regarding the need to move on, two NBA squads have emerged as the frontrunners for Crowder’s services.
Those two teams: the Miami Heat and Atlanta Hawks.
“Along with Miami, inquiring teams have been told Atlanta is Crowder’s other preferred landing spot,” Jake Fischer of Yahoo! Sports reported.
“While the Hawks have made calls about injured wing Bogdan Bogdanovic, a potential framework of Crowder and Landry Shamet for Bogdanovic has made the rounds among front office personnel, although one source with knowledge of the situation claimed Shamet is not part of any active Suns conversations with Atlanta.
“The Hawks and Suns have had dialogue on Crowder throughout the summer.”
Originally there were three teams with interest in bringing Crowder onboard. Now there are two.
It seems like this process is slowly working itself out. Sooner rather than later Crowder will land elsewhere, that much is clear.
What is less clear, however is what impact all this will ultimately have on the Suns. Mind you, this organization had the opportunity to acquire Kevin Durant over the summer if they had just been willing to part with one player.
They relented.
Now they are about to lose Crowder, too.
Chris Paul isn’t getting any younger. Devin Booker is still coming off a playoff run where he got wholly emasculated by Luka Doncic. So for this summer he has been making more headlines for his provocative photos with Kendall Jenner than any substantive basketball matters.
Yikes. https://t.co/OnhGPR6PIl
— Game 7 (@game7__) October 12, 2022
The Suns shocked a lot of people when they made the Finals two years ago. That earned them some goodwill, but it’s slowly running out.
If they don’t get to the NBA Finals this year, or somewhere close to it, it’s going to increasingly start looking like they’ve already peaked.
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Jennifer Withers Hoey is a former Business Development Manager who transitioned to writing about sports. With valuable connections all over the West Coast, she has used those contacts to break some of the most interesting stories pertaining to the Portland Trail Blazers, Oregon Ducks, LA Lakers, LA Clippers, Seattle Supersonics (RIP), and more.
