I don't think people are overrating or overvaluing Warren here though. He is probably worth a mid 1st round pick or a decent rotation player of some variety. I'm not sure who, it depends on what team we're talking about, but since his contract is reasonable I don't think we need to attach any sort of sweeteners to move him if we sought to dump his salary. In fact if the Suns made it known they just wanted to clear cap space, I'd think there would be a number of teams interested in taking him on and we'd probably get offered a future 1st by the highest bidder. Will we get a top 10 pick? I don't think so. But in the draft next year we might be able to deal him for the 8th, 9th, or 10th pick if the draft is similar in it's depth to the 2017 draft. This last year was really deep so no one was moving a lottery pick for him. We might have been able to get 13 or 14 for him, but I don't think that's a certainty.
It's tough to set a value in the NBA because teams are always looking for something different, salary relief, tradable assets in the form of draft picks, expiring contracts, or just a deal between 2 players who need a change of scenery and fill different hole and play different roles. Trading Warren to a team like Boston for Smart in a sign & trade should be enough, I wouldn't make that trade though because I don't think Smart is an upgrade for us. He's not a starting PG but he can give you minutes at PG as a backup. Perhaps trading him somewhere else like the Nets for Dinwiddie would be a good trade. I think he's worth a rotation PG, which we're in need of, but he won't bring back and All-Star like Kemba. The most value I think we could get is with a team like Miami who may be interested in moving Dragic so they get something for him without letting him walk and some immediate salary relief towards the cap annually. In terms of his age, Warren fits better there than Dragic also, giving them a young wing while they look for another trade to make. He could be flipped with other young players they have. I could also see him being a fair asset to trade for Patrick Beverly on the Clippers, maybe even Dallas would do a deal for Harrison Barnes to save money. I'd rather pay Warren $11 million than Barnes the $24 million he makes. Warren has value, just not enough to be the centerpiece for a high quality player.