Phoenix Suns Reportedly Interested in Utah Jazz’s Derrick Favors

The Phoenix Suns are reportedly interested in Derrick Favors, but do they have enough to offer to attract the Utah Jazz into striking a deal?

With the trade deadline looming, the Utah Jazz are beginning to be mentioned more and more as potential participants in the upcoming trade madness. First, it was reported that the Jazz were testing the market for Derrick Favors, which was followed shortly after by rumors that Utah is seeking a trade for the Los Angeles Lakers’ Lou Williams.

Now the most recent development involves more news concerning Utah’s struggling power forward, Derrick Favors.

According to several sources including Tony Jones of the Salt Lake Tribune, the Phoenix Suns have expressed interest in Favors as a trade target. Jones also reports that while Utah is willing to listen to offers on Favors, he’s still considered a part of the team’s success, thus they are less likely to move him.

In other words, the Jazz would probably have to be blown away by a trade offer in order to move Favors by the deadline, which begs the question, do the Phoenix Suns have anything that could blow the Jazz away?

Of course, the Jazz and Suns could engage in a multi-team deal to make something happen, but setting that to one side, let’s take a look at what Phoenix specifically could offer the Jazz in a deal. As I mentioned in my recent look at the top trade targets from all 30 NBA teams, the name that has appeared most frequently out of Phoenix has been forward P.J. Tucker.

And according to recent reports, Tucker just so happens to be a player of interest for the Utah Jazz:

The following trade example appeared on Twitter this afternoon, and while including forward T.J. Warren may very well not be in the Suns’ plans, an idea such as this certainly is intriguing:

However, the other name that has appeared several times in Phoenix Suns trade rumors has been Brandon Knight. The sixth-year point guard has struggled mightily this year, but is just one year removed from a season where he put up a career-high 19.6 points per game, albeit in just 52 games due to injury.

Nevertheless, it’s no secret that the Jazz could use some help at the backup point guard spot and that they’re open to adding a new player at that position as evidenced by their consideration of Lou Williams. So perhaps it is possible that Brandon Knight could be included in a Favors to Phoenix package.

The question is, though, would any deal including the likes of P.J. Tucker or Brandon Knight be enough to, as I mentioned before, blow the Jazz away and convince them to make a deal?

We’ll likely have to wait until February 23rd to know the answer to that and quite frankly, without seeing all that goes on behind the scenes, may never truly know for sure. However, in my mind, while Tucker is a formidable defender and an improving shooter, I’m not convinced that he would necessarily be the right fit for Utah or worth trading away Favors for.

Yes, D-Faves has underwhelmed this year, but he was a critical piece to Utah’s success last season and to be perfectly honest, despite his struggles, he’s still putting up better numbers than Tucker this season while posting five minutes less per game.

On the season, Favors is averaging 9.2 points on 46.9 percent shooting from the field and 6.1 rebounds in 23.5 minutes of play while Tucker is at 7.0 points on 41.6 percent shooting from the field and 6.0 rebounds in 28.5 minutes of play.

If it turns out that Jazz brass feels that they value Tucker’s 3-and-D abilities over what Favors brings to the table, then I will trust in their decision, but my initial reaction is that this wouldn’t be the best option for Utah.

In terms of Brandon Knight (though there’s been no report that Utah is looking at him, specifically, that’s just speculation), I’d say that he has been too inconsistent to be a reliable option and his defense is too much of a liability.

Therefore, while the Suns may very well have interest in Favors, I have a hard time believing that they’ll be able to offer enough to pry Derrick away from the Jazz.

Now if a third team is involved meaning the Jazz can pull off some combination that would send Favors to Phoenix while receiving P.J. Tucker and the Lakers’ Lou Williams, then we might be talking.

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• 3 Utah Jazz players who have the most to gain or lose this season
• Former Utah Jazz forward Rudy Gay is a free agent still and it shouldn’t surprise anyone

While more rumors involving Favors and the Jazz will likely continue to surface between now and the deadline, a resolution is coming soon as the deadline hits in a mere 48 hours.

All stats courtesy of NBA.com