Suns and Lakers have had trade talks surrounding last year’s starting center

What could Suns get for Richards:

Gregory could try to recoup draft assets for Richards, while taking no salary back to try and get under the second apron. Once Phoenix can under the second apron, it’ll be able to aggregate players into deals in the future. The flexibility is just as important as the potential return for Richards itself.

However, the Suns are in need of more point guard help and could try to swap Richards for guard Shake Milton in a way to cut salary but get a player in return. Gabe Vincent would be an intriguing option for the franchise, but his base salary of $11.5 million makes a trade near impossible with the team over the second apron.

Another option is expanding a trade to a three or four team trade that helps absorb more salary than either Los Angeles or Phoenix could handle. This could work eventually in any Bradley Beal trade in the future with the Lakers and Suns sending the draft assets to another party to absorbs the 31-year-old’s contract, while Los Angeles gets Richards.

Richards is likely gone with the positional need filled and how valuable his $5 million base salary is for other teams. Gregory should look to move him for some draft capital, that could then be used to offload Beal’s contract in the future.