A Goran Dragic Trade May Not Be Easy To Pull Off

In trade negotiations, there is always a little gamesmanship. One team tries to angle a little more value out of the other team and the back and forth that makes or breaks a deal is often about compromise.

The Phoenix Suns opened the phones on guard Goran Dragic yesterday and fielded a lot of interest. The interest was exactly what they were hoping for when Dragic informed the team he would not be willing to sign a new deal and that he wanted to be traded.

The key suitors for Dragic from the Phoenix side have been the Boston Celtics, Sacramento Kings and Houston Rockets. All three are offering packages built around young, promising players and a draft pick or two.

The problem is none of those teams are on the list of teams Dragic’s representatives supplied the Suns with.

Dragic’s camp wants him traded to a team he’d ultimately sign a lucrative long-term deal with and while Boston, Houston and even Sacramento are decent enough situations, they all present problems for Dragic and his agent.

The Suns’ stance is simply that they are going to make the best deal they can make for themselves and are not at all interested in what Dragic may or may not want. However, as word has leaked of serious talks with “non-list” teams, Dragic’s camp is making it clear in the loudest of terms that a “non-list” team trading for Dragic needs to understand he’s not re-signing there.

There is a sense among league sources that Suns owner Robert Sarver was less than happy to have terms dictated to him by Dragic and his agents, so it will be interesting to see how this all plays out with the deadline less than six hours away.

Via Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders