NBA Trade Rumors: Miles Plumlee Drawing Interest From Knicks, Lakers
While all the talk surrounding the NBA Trade Deadline has centered on which guard the Suns might trade before Thursday, there’s one guy being forgotten about, Miles Plumlee.
A few weeks back, Plumlee was being talked about as a possible guy to go elsewhere in a trade. That talk has since died down a bit, but it may be about to pick up again.
According to Sam Amick of USA Today, two teams are said to be interested in acquiring the Suns big man.
As such, we have Suns' Miles Plumlee, who has drawn interest from Knicks & Lakers. Reluctance to take on $ for next year, but only $2.1 mil
— Sam Amick (@sam_amick) February 17, 2015
Given how bad these two teams are, it’s kind of surprising to see that they both could be possible buyers at the deadline. The Lakers and Knicks are a combined 23-83 on the year with both organizations looking towards the future.
Plumlee’s contract situation is a bit of a concern for both teams though. He’s scheduled to make $2.1 million next season and the Lakers and Knicks both want to have as much money as possible to spend on free agents this coming summer.
As it stands right now, LA has only about $36 million on the books in guarantee contracts for next season with Kobe Bryant taking up most of that with his $25 million deal.
New York is in a pretty similar boat as Los Angeles. They have right around $34 million in guaranteed money for next year as Carmelo Anthony makes up a significant portion of that.
Unfortunately for the Suns, Plumlee doesn’t hold a lot of trade value at the moment. With the emergence of Alex Len, Plumlee’s minutes have taken a hit and so have his numbers, which have dropped off considerably from his promising year last season.
If one of these two teams thinks they are getting the Plumlee of last season, Phoenix might be able to get a young player with promise in return. If it’s the other way, it’s hard to see the Suns getting anything more than a second round pick for their young center.
If that ends being the case, Ryan McDonough and company would probably be better off holding onto Plumlee to see if they can get a better return for him in the offseason or even package him as part of a bigger deal.
Stay with HeatWaved as we cover all your Suns news heading into the Trade Deadline on Thursday.