3 Deandre Ayton trades the Suns would have to consider

1. Trade Deandre Ayton to the Toronto Raptors

This is among the most complicated ideas in part because it involves two sign-and-trades that can’t be packaged together in a single trade, according to CBA rules. That means the sign-and-trades for Poeltl and VanVleet would need to be two separate transactions that both work individually. It depends a little bit on the final salary figures of the new deals for VanVleet and Poeltl but the Suns could probably make it work with Ayton roughly lining up with VanVleet, with potentially another salary coming back. And Shamet and Wainwright combine to approximate Poeltl’s salary.

To my mind, this is a best-case scenario for the Suns. They turn Ayton into two starters — a strong defensive anchor who can act as a distributor from the elbows and a borderline elite spot-up threat and secondary creator at point guard. They could then waive and stretch Paul, and use the full mid-level exception to chase additional depth.

For the Raptors, it might be hard to give up on Poeltl after they just acquired him. But Ayton has more two-way value and, younger, might be a better fit with a reloaded core around Scottie Barnes. VanVleet may be headed out in free agency anyway so this allows them to recoup some extra value.

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