The Suns will not trade Josh Jackson or Devin Booker for Kyrie Irving

In their attempt to acquire star point guard Kyrie Irving, the Phoenix Suns have set a couple of conditions on their end.

When a star becomes available for trade, it can be tempting to do whatever it takes to acquire him. But history shows “whatever it takes” can be a terrible trade strategy. The Phoenix Suns refuse to be that team.

With Cleveland Cavaliers star point guard Kyrie Irving’s desire to leave the ‘Land, the Suns are feverishly trying to put together a package that will bring him west — only, they won’t gut their core of Devin Booker and Josh Jackson to do it. In fact, the Suns may have outright said so (via Cleveland.com, h/t uproxx.com):

"Cleveland also wants Josh Jackson, a 6-8 rookie drafted fourth overall by the Suns in June. Phoenix reportedly doesn’t want to trade Jackson, and a source said the Suns told Devin Booker he would not be traded — which would seem to put a serious hamper in this potential trade.“If that deal (Bledsoe, Miami first rounder and Jackson) for Irving was there, it’d be done by now,” a league source with knowledge of the Cavs’ thinking told cleveland.com."

The Suns’ two best assets are the freakishly athletic Jackson and the freakishly prolific Booker. Both are 20-years-old (Booker older by about four months) and both have ceilings that could pay huge dividends for the Suns by the time they both reach their mid-20s. And it seems that those two are the only things holding this trade back.

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It seems the thought here is Irving could be part of the core, but that’s as far as the Suns will go. As we’ve seen in the past, gutting your team’s roster to acquire one player can be devastating for your future as an organization. And with the health of the Suns rising, it makes sense they wouldn’t want to fall into that trap.