A look back at the Suns' awful T.J. Warren trade to the Pacers for ... cash

Over a year ago, when the Indiana Pacers traded for veteran wing T.J. Warren, they knew what they were getting: a dependable scorer who had developed a much-improved three-point shot in what turned out to be his final year with the Phoenix Suns.

What they didn’t know is that he’d positively explode in the NBA bubble when the league restarted after the COVID-19 pause. He’s scored 34.8 ppg in Disney World, and has continued to show his improvements on the defensive end this season weren’t an anomaly.

That’s led everyone to look back at the trade the Suns made and laughed so very, very hard.

So does Phoenix deserve it in hindsight? Let’s break it all down.

First off, the trade was Warren and the 32nd overall pick to the Pacers in exchange for … cash. The Pacers shipped the pick to the Heat in a separate deal, but that’s not what we’re concerned with.

On paper, that was already a bad trade, and we don’t need hindsight to see that. How many wing scorers are you getting for nothing, one in the middle of a four-year $50 million deal? At the time, regardless of the fit, it was a heist for the Pacers, who needed a player to replace Bojan Bogdanovic — he left for the Utah Jazz in the offseason.

For the Suns, we do need to look at it in context. Yes, they should have gotten something besides money back for Warren. But at the time, it was pre-free agency in June. The team still had to re-sign restricted free agent Kelly Oubre (they did) and probably felt they had too many small forwards with Oubre and Mikal Bridges there. They wanted to use the cap room created with this trade to sign a much-needed point guard to get the ball out of Devin Booker’s hands, and so they ended up with Ricky Rubio.

Now, in the restart, they’re 5-0 and in the running for the No. 8 seed in the West. Booker, of course, is a star, DeAndre Ayton is starting to turn a corner, Bridges is a defensive dynamo who could be the next great 3-and-D stud, Rubio has filled in exactly how he was supposed to and former first-rounder Cameron Johnson has shown some flashes.

So, yes. The trade was a bad one at the time, and now it REALLY is. But we do have to give some credit to Phoenix for the team they have without Warren. Do they get Rubio if they don’t trade him?

Still: maybe don’t trade a solid player for nothing next time, NBA teams.