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NBA notebook: Phoenix Suns open to trading top pick

[May 19, 2018] After winning Tuesday's NBA draft lottery, Phoenix Suns general manager Ryan McDonough said the team will consider all options with the No. 1 pick next month, including a trade.

"We're certainly open to that. We'll consider it," McDonough said in an interview on ESPN at the combine in Chicago. "Obviously, we'll have more information closer to the draft than we do today, after we go through the workout process and the interview process and we get the medical physicals. So we're open to that.

"I think if you look around the NBA, as far as the veteran players, there are probably a few players we'd consider trading the pick for, not ... just pick for player No. 1. So it'll be a busy month for us."

McDonough said immediately after the team won the lottery that a trade was "unlikely," but he qualified that statement Friday by saying an offer including a rising star with a few years under contract could be tempting.

--Becky Hammon's name continues to pop up for head coaching jobs in the NBA, this time as a potential target for the Detroit Pistons, the Detroit News reported.

Hammon, an assistant with the San Antonio Spurs since 2014, is "on the Pistons' radar" and has the experience and background to be a head coach in the NBA, a league source told the News.

She is the first female assistant coach in NBA history and became the first woman to interview for a head coaching job earlier this offseason, doing so with the Milwaukee Bucks. Hammon also coached the Spurs' NBA Summer League team to a championship in 2015, which may lessen any concerns she can relate to and coach male players.

--Oklahoma guard Trae Young took things a step further at the NBA Draft Combine when asked if he's the best scorer in this year's draft.

"I think I'm the best overall player in this draft," Young told reporters. "My main focus isn't necessarily to be the best player in this draft. My focus is to be the best player in the NBA. That's what I'm focusing on each and every day."

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April 1, 2018; Oakland, CA, USA; Phoenix Suns forward Marquese Chriss (0) shoots the basketball against Golden State Warriors guard Quinn Cook (4) during the third quarter at Oracle Arena. The Warriors defeated the Suns 117-107. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

Young, the Big 12 freshman of the year, averaged 27.4 points and 8.7 assists and set the conference scoring record with 811 points in 2017-18. Young is projected to be a top-10 pick in the draft, though he isn't considered among the likely candidates to go first overall. His statement is nearly identical to the claim Missouri's Michael Porter Jr. made on Thursday despite playing just 53 minutes in three games during his lone year with the Tigers.

--Throughout his collegiate career, and not always for the right reasons, Duke's Grayson Allen often found himself the talk of the college basketball world, and it looks like he's carrying that over to the NBA.

While most mock drafts have Allen going late in the first or early in the second round, he is setting himself apart from the rest of the field at the NBA combine in New York.

In Thursday's testing, Allen reportedly posted a 10.31-second lane-agility drill, one of the top times in combine history. He also posted the second-best shuttle time this year (3.4 seconds) and sixth-best vertical leap (40.5 inches).

-- Chicago Bulls forward Paul Zipser had surgery to repair a broken left foot in his native Germany, the team announced.

Zipser posted a photo of himself on Instagram, giving a thumbs up to the camera with the caption, "Surgery went well. Time to work."

Zipser, 24, averaged 4.0 points and 2.4 rebounds in 15.2 minutes per game last season, his second in the NBA. The Bulls took him in the second round of the 2016 draft out of Bayern Munich.

--Field Level Media

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