This post was originally published on this site.
The NBA trade season is fully unlocked, with many players on new teams allowed to be traded as of Monday. In Phoenix, expect to hear Nick Richards’ name lobbed around in trade rumors.
Speak of the devil!
HoopsHype’s Michael Scotto reports the Raptors have shown interest in Richards — and that Phoenix and Toronto have held “exploratory discussions” about some combination of forward Ochai Agbaji and a second-round pick in exchange for Richards.
The 28-year-old center is on an expiring $5 million deal that the Suns guaranteed this offseason, likely seeing his contract as a tradeable asset regardless of his production.
This was discussed but is not going to happen. Toronto and multiple teams have reached out about Nick Richards. He’s third on the depth chart and has a good expiring contract. The Suns will get Jalen Green back soon and by the end of January they should have a better feel for… https://t.co/oqEXGKC248
— John Gambadoro (@Gambo987) December 18, 2025
It’s still early, and Richards’ stock is what it is. His minutes have dipped from double figures in the first month of play to single digits more recently. Starter Mark Williams and backup Oso Ighodaro are giving enough as the Suns have kept to their identity and survived well enough playing small.
The longer the season goes, the more Phoenix will find reasons to plan out brief stints for rookie and No. 10 pick Khaman Maluach, who right now is earning most of his playing time in G League games.
Beyond that, there are major cap implications for this Suns team that spent over the second apron each of the past two seasons and could hold the roster steady through the trade deadline to free itself in the future.
ESPN’s Bobby Marks has the Suns currently just $274,000 over the tax, and Richards’ contract is the easiest to move, in theory.
So long as Phoenix remains competitive, general manager Brian Gregory and owner Mat Ishbia will have to feel out the risk-reward of trying to improve this year’s team. The Suns are on the way to becoming a repeater tax team, which puts a harsh penalty on clubs that go over the tax for four years in a row.
Aiming for a second-round pick in exchange for Richards might be acceptable for the Suns, considering how they’ve navigated the back half of the draft in the past two years.
Adding the 25-year-old Agbaji, who is on an expiring $6.4 million deal before he’s a restricted free agent, would put them further in the tax without any other roster moves.
Agbaji also wouldn’t appear to align with the Suns chasing the playoffs this year. He would slot somewhere into the Royce O’Neale and Ryan Dunn minutes as an athletic, slashing wing whose success as a 3-point shooter in four seasons came only last year, when he shot 40% on 4.0 attempts per game.
Agbaji averaged 10.4 points, 3.8 rebounds and 1.4 assists on 50% shooting overall in 2024-25, starting in 45 of 64 games played.
But he’s struggled with 39% shooting this season as his minutes have been cut back to 15.0 per game on a more competitive team.
Why would the Raptors have trade interest in Suns center Nick Richards?
Toronto is a sneaky solid 16-11 this season, with the Brandon Ingram-Scottie Barnes-RJ Barrett trio rattling off seven wins in a row and 10 of 11 before Barrett went down with a knee injury around Thanksgiving.
The Raptors have gone 3-6 since Barrett got hurt.
Head coach Darko Rajakovic’s lineup goes 10 deep, but his bigs after starting center Jakob Poeltl only include rookie forward Collin Murray-Boyles (3.2 rebounds per 17.5 minutes a game) and Sandro Mamukelashvili (4.4 rebounds per 19.5 minutes a game).
They have nobody other than Poeltl on the roster who can physically counter the bigger center rotations in the league, like the Rockets (Alperen Sengun, Steven Adams and Clint Capela) and Nuggets (Nikola Jokic and Jonas Valanciunas) in the Western Conference or the Sixers (Joel Embiid and Andre Drummond) and Knicks (Karl-Anthony Towns and Mitchell Robinson) in their own division.
