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NBA Trade Rumors: Greg Monroe And Dragan Bender To Heat, Hassan Whiteside And Eric Bledsoe To Bucks, Jabari Parker And Rashad Vaughn To Suns

By Adrian Lawhorn
Published on: 10:26 PST, Nov 13, 2016

NBA trade rumors continue to fly, particularly for certain teams and players. According to Yibada, the Phoenix Suns are looking to trade point guard Eric Bledsoe due to the presence of fellow point guard Brandon Knight. Both players are deserving of starter’s minutes, but the Suns could use Bledsoe as trade bait in order to improve the roster at other positions in which the team is not as strong.

It does not appear that Miami Heat power forward Chris Bosh will ever play for the team again, so rumors are circulating that Milwaukee Bucks big man Greg Monroe may be Bosh’s eventual replacement, as reported by Ecumenical News. Monroe has been on the trading block for quite some time due to the fact that the Bucks want to play an up-tempo game, and the plodding Monroe does not fit into that style of play.

In a separate story published by Yibada, a deal that would send Milwaukee power forward Jabari Parker to Phoenix could be up for discussion. The theory is that in order to move Greg Monroe, the Bucks may be forced to trade a young talent like Jabari Parker to make a deal such as that work. The report goes on to state that Eric Bledsoe would also be part of this trade scenario, since rumors indicate that the Suns would prefer to turn the point guard duties over to Brandon Knight.

The latest NBA trade rumors that are making the rounds suggest that a three-way deal between the Miami Heat, Milwaukee Bucks, and Phoenix Suns could be under consideration. The scenario being scrutinized on the internet has the Heat acquiring power forward/center Greg Monroe, rookie power forward Dragan Bender, and a future first-round draft pick from Milwaukee. The Bucks would come out of this swap with Eric Bledsoe and center Hassan Whiteside. The Suns would finish out the third portion of this rumored trade by receiving Jabari Parker and shooting guard Rashad Vaughn.

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The Miami Heat recently made a colossal commitment to Hassan Whiteside by signing him to a four-year max contract worth $98 million. They seem to have no plans to trade their young center, but the rumored trade offer does have reasonable value. Greg Monroe is a productive player, although not a game-changer on the level of Hassan Whiteside, particularly on the defensive end. Jabari Parker is a talented third-year player out of Duke who would be a good choice to replace Chris Bosh, as Parker appears to have the potential to become a future NBA All-Star.

Miami would also obtain a first-round draft choice from the Bucks, so this trade offer would be worth a second look from Heat team president Pat Riley. However, it is doubtful that Riley would agree to this deal, because he knows that impact players like Hassan Whiteside are a rare commodity. The hypothetical trade scenario is fair enough, but Miami would likely want an even more valuable package to consider parting with Whiteside.

At this point, let’s move along to the topic of how legitimate this NBA trade rumor might be in terms of the NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). The first issue is Hassan Whiteside’s contract, which was signed so recently that he is not eligible to be traded until December 15, as confirmed via the ESPN NBA Trade Machine. Things can always change as we get closer to the NBA trade deadline in February, 2017, but this trade proposal cannot be completed at this time.

The next problem is the salary match produced by this combination of players. There would be a surplus of approximately $5 million of incoming salary on the Milwaukee Bucks’ side, but that isn’t the only snag — there would also be too much money being added to the Miami Heat’s payroll, about $4 million in salary, per year, to be more precise. Even if all three teams wanted to make this trade, there are several insurmountable hurdles that would have to be cleared. In short, there is no way this specific transaction would be allowed by the NBA league office.

Current NBA trade rumors are gaining steam, and a potential deal between the Miami Heat, Milwaukee Bucks, and Phoenix Suns is one of the hottest of those topics being debated online. The Heat have made a strong commitment to Hassan Whiteside, and while the compensation package mentioned in this rumored proposal is reasonable, it would take an epic trade offer to pry Whiteside away from Miami. Additionally, the structure of this speculative transaction would not pass muster with the NBA league office, so this is another NBA trade rumor that may be entertaining to examine, but has no validity as an actual three-team NBA trade.

[Featured Image by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images]

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Hassan Whiteside NBA Miami Heat Phoenix Suns Milwaukee Bucks Jabari Parker Eric Bledsoe
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