By Gerald Bourguet

The 2026 NBA Draft is just a few weeks away, and while the Phoenix Suns currently only have one distant second-round pick at No. 47, recent history suggests there’s a strong possibility they move up on draft night.

Since general manager Brian Gregory first joined the Suns front office two years ago, Phoenix has been more active in moving up in the second round than any other team in the league.

In 2024, the Suns traded down from the No. 22 pick to No. 28 since their guy, Ryan Dunn, was going to be available there anyway. In the process, they picked up three extra second-round picks. Then, in the second round, they traded No. 56 — one of the picks they had just acquired — along with another future second-rounder to move up to No. 40, where they got their other guy, Oso Ighodaro.

Last year, the Suns entered draft week with Kevin Durant, the No. 29 pick and the No. 52 pick. They selected Khaman Maluach with the No. 10 pick they got from trading KD to Houston, but they also got five extra second-rounders out of that deal: No. 59, two second-rounders in 2026, a 2030 second from the Boston Celtics, and Houston’s 2032 second.

The Suns traded No. 29 and a 2029 first-rounder (the least valuable pick between Utah, Cleveland and Minnesota) for Mark Williams, then packaged one of those 2026 second-rounders and Boston’s 2030 second-rounder to move up to No. 36.

From there, Phoenix flipped No. 36, another 2026 second-rounder and that 2032 second-rounder to the Minnesota Timberwolves to move up to No. 31, where they got their guy in Rasheer Fleming. They also packaged the No. 52 and No. 59 picks to move up to No. 41 for Koby Brea.

In other words, in the Brian Gregory era, the Suns have had no problem leveraging future second-rounders to get help now, finding new ways to kick the can further down the road. With first-round picks, that approach can be dangerous, but since other teams treat second-rounders as expendable fodder, and since the Suns have a pretty decent track record of finding talent in the second round of the draft lately, it’s a commendable approach to squeeze every last ounce out of his aspect of the team-building process.

Even if Phoenix doesn’t bolster their meager collection of draft assets by trading someone like Grayson Allen or Royce O’Neale, they still have two future first-round picks that become trade-eligible on draft night, as well as two future second-rounders they can trade (their own in 2029 and 2033).

The Suns should place higher value on those first-round picks, especially after the NBA’s misguided draft lottery reforms, but those future seconds could very easily be in play to help Phoenix move up for someone they like in this year’s draft. Even better, because the Suns are no longer a second apron team, they can send out cash in trades again, giving them another effective tool that teams have historically used to “buy” their way further up in the pecking order.

Bearing all that in mind, it’s not out of the realm of possibility for Phoenix to move up into the 30s for an early second-round pick, or even somewhere in the late first round. In fact, given Gregory’s track record, it’d almost be surprising if they didn’t move up somehow, and there are a number of teams with multiple picks who would make sense as potential trade-up targets.

All of that means there’s a much broader range of prospects to examine when trying to evaluate the best draft fits for Phoenix. We’ve already covered some first-round candidates that might be worth trading up for, so over the next few weeks leading up to the draft, we’re going to take a deeper look at a few more names that might be called in the late first round/early second round, and why they might be ideal fits for a Suns squad that could use some help at the 3 and the 4.

This week, we’ll start with Arkansas forward Trevon Brazile.

A look at Trevon Brazile’s game

Nine games into his sophomore season at Arkansas, Trevon Brazile tore his ACL. Three years later, you would never have known it, given the way his boundless leaps and high-flying highlight reels have captivated Razorbacks fans — or anyone else tuning in for Arkansas games.

Despite all the monster dunks and chase-down rejections, this kid was flying under the radar as a second-round prospect for awhile. That’s probably because he’s a fifth-year senior who turned 23 in January, but it seems he’s finally launching his way up teams’ draft boards. The Athletic’s John Hollinger noted how Brazile’s physical tools and performance at the NBA Draft Combine may have propelled him up the pecking order:

“Arkansas forward Trevon Brazile was the measurement monster of the likely second-rounders, with a 7-3 3/4 wingspan on his 6-9 1/2 frame (plus-6.25!), a 9-1 standing reach and a 36-inch no-step jump. His name hasn’t received a ton of attention, but between these measurables and two solid scrimmages (25 points and 15 boards total), don’t be shocked to see him move up boards into the early second round.”

Most mocks leading up to the combine were pegging Brazile going somewhere in the 40s or 50s. ESPN’s mock draft on May 19 had him going 45th overall, Yahoo! Sports had him going 57th, and The Athletic’s Sam Vecenie had him going to the Suns with the 47th pick in his May 10 mock.

But then the combine happened, where Brazile’s eye-popping measurements, 41.5″ max vert and 33.0″ standing vertliterally leapt off the page. In Vecenie’s latest mock on June 8, he bumped Brazile up to 41st, and after his strong showing at the combine, Phoenix will almost certainly need to trade up from No. 47 if he winds up being their guy.

In any case, Brazile is an above-the-rim threat on both ends coming off his best season yet, where he averaged 13.0 points, 7.3 rebounds, 1.6 blocks and 1.5 steals in 31.5 minutes per game while shooting 52.5 percent overall.

Some players’ games speak for themselves when it comes to jaw-dropping highlights, and Trevon Brazile’s penchant for punishing opposing rims makes him one such player:

Most NBA athletes are incredible to behold in action, but some still manage to stand out from even that cream of the crop as absolute physical specimens. Brazile is that kind of athlete, with explosive liftoffs that would put a billionaire’s space program to shame, impressive fluidity in his movements, and long limbs that can turn “anywhere above the rim” into a target area for him to finish off plays with thunderous impact.

Over his five years in college, Brazile shot 65.3 percent, 78.6 percent, 58.5 percent, 54.2 percent and 61.4 percent on 2-point shots.

As No Ceilings‘ Jamaill Hines pointed out, Brazile converted an unbelievable 81.7 percent of his total rim attempts last year, per CBB Shot Charts, while racking up 57 dunks in 36 games. And as his fellow No Ceilings contributor Quinn Fishburne pointed out, Brazile shot a staggering 50-for-62 on 2-pointers in transition and as a roll man in pick-and-roll scenarios. That’s an insane 80.6 percent!

Whether it’s finishing off alley-oop lobs, converting rim runs off pocket passes in the pick-and-roll, or galloping past people in transition for breathtaking dunks on the break, Trevon Brazile is one of those guys who is going to force defenders to make a lot of “business decisions,” where they simply let his rim assaults go unchallenged for fear of winding up on his next poster.

On the Suns After Dark Podcast, No Ceilings’ Nathan Grubel compared Brazile to another one of Phoenix’s recent second-round draft selections, Toumani Camara, in terms of how simplifying his offensive role could yield better results at the next level. Both are great positional athletes, but finding his footing at the next level — like Camara has done with the Portland Trail Blazers — could simply be a matter of not asking him to do too much.

“If you’re only asking him to spot up from 3, cut to the basket, play in transition, hit the glass hard, then I think a lot could be there for him,” Grubel said. “If you’re going to ask him to make some decisions off the dribble or make some pull-up jumpers or things of that nature, the waters get a little murkier when you put a little too much on his plate.

“But if you’re talking about drafting him in the second round, you probably don’t envision him for that type of role anyway, so if you just need him to be a seventh, eighth, ninth man off the bench, and he can get his feet wet, starts contributing in different areas on both ends of the floor, maybe one day because of his athletic tools, he could become a starting-level player in the NBA. I wouldn’t put that past him.”

In a similar vein, when Brazile committed to crashing the glass, he swooped in like a hawk eyeing its prey from miles above. On a Jordan Ott-led Phoenix team that’s proven its dedication to racking up offensive boards, Brazile’s innate ability to rise up over defensive rebounders — whether they’re boxing him out or not — would be a great fit.

His literal looming presence extends to the rim on the other end of the court too. Thanks to his lateral quickness, 6-foot-9 frame (barefoot) and near 7-foot-4 wingspan, Brazile should be able to guard multiple positions at the NBA level and continue being disruptive as a defensive playmaker.

For starters, Brazile is an imposing shot-blocker who doesn’t mind flying in from the weak side to kick someone’s shot out of bounds. He’s also great about matching up on-ball and sizing up would-be scorers whenever they try to slip one past him off the dribble:

Again, averaging 3.1 stocks per game is no joke, and Brazile knows how to use his mobility to jump passing lanes and turn soft passes into pick-sixes. He also proved he can contribute on the defensive glass, putting that length and leaping ability to good use.

“I think the best thing that he showed he was able to do at Arkansas his last year there was play with a motor,” Nathan Grubel explained on the Suns After Dark Podcast. “His motor was inconsistent earlier on in his college career. Now, I think he much so understands who he needs to be as a player, and if that’s the case, that’s the best thing that I would want to hear if I’m a scout or an executive.”

The biggest potential pitfall with Brazile is his 3-point shot. He only made 34.1 percent of his career-high 3.7 attempts per game last year, capping off a few years of ups and downs:

• 2025-26: 34.1% on 3.7 attempts per game
• 2024-25: 36.4% on 1.9 attempts per game
• 2023-24: 35.3% on 2.6 attempts per game
• 2022-23: 37.9% on 3.2 attempts per game
• 2021-22: 33.3% on 1.3 attempts per game

As you can see, his efficiency and volume fluctuated quite a bit over the last five years, and while growth isn’t always linear, the only year where he shot an above-average percentage from deep was the season where he only played 9 games. Hopefully he can prove himself as a consistent shooter at the next level with more repetition and an extra emphasis on rounding out this duller edge of his game.

Brazile’s shooting stroke needs to be a little quicker, but the mechanics are fine, and it’s worth noting that he shot 43.1 percent on wide open catch-and-shoot 3s — something that will constitute more of his shot diet in the pros, as opposed to some of the contested 3-point looks he had to take in college.

He’ll mostly be a standstill and occasional relocation shooter at the next level, but if the goal is to just be a respectable floor-spacer, there’s a foundation to build on, at least. 

Just being a semi-reliable spot-up threat converting at a league-average clip should be more than enough to keep him on the floor, and it would also open up possibilities for Brazile to attack closeouts, where he could utilize his sweeping strides on quick-decision drives to get to the rim in the blink of an eye.

When putting together my list of favorite second-round draft prospects for the Suns over at Suns After Dark, Trevon Brazile was No. 2 on my list. It’s unlikely he’ll still be available by pick No. 47, but the Suns have the means to trade up into his draft range if they’re enamored with his athleticism, defensive playmaking, awe-inducing finishing ability and stretch-4 potential. 

Assuming this guy is still on the board and Phoenix is in range to trade up, he might be worth sacrificing an extra second-round pick.

For more of Gerald Bourguet’s Suns work, check back with Sports360AZ on a weekly basis, subscribe to his Patreon articles and podcast at Suns After Dark, or follow him on Twitter.