Dame trade

[Coolbreeze44]

As a Bucks fan I believe this makes them the favorites to win the championship. The Bucks achilles heel has been the lack of an elite closer in the playoffs. Giannis though great, isn't the guy you want to rely on in the last 2 minutes. He doesn't shoot it well enough and you can throw enough bodies at him to keep him from getting to the tin. In terms of closers, I'm not sure there is any better than Lillard. I see this as a perfect fit for the Bucks, and although they will miss Jrue, they are a harder team to play against now.

[WildWolf2813]

A bit surprising! Ayton makes a lot of sense for Portland. I'm surprised by Jrue Holiday's inclusion. He doesn't make sense for a rebuilding team but he would have a lot of value for a playoff contending team. I'm wondering if he gets flipped soon. I'm also surprised that the Suns got so little for Ayton. It appears to be a partial salary dump. Makes me think we could have gotten Ayton rather than Gobert for one first round pick and salary filler had we pursued him rather than Gobert and his age matches up much closer to that of Ant and Jaden.

Ayton was so readily available because the Suns fell out with him as a person. Portland happens to really like Ayton though.

[Monster]

One thing I will say about Ayton is I think his value goes up if a team actually needs and utilizes his offense. The Suns always had plenty of offense already. Will Ayton’s offensive skill be more valuable in Portland? I would assume so he isn’t playing with high end scorers.

Which brings us to the idea we could have brought him here to the Wolves for not much or at least much less than Gobert. Yeah we could have but does he make sense here playing next to Towns? Not really. I wasn’t against bringing Ayton here the previous offseason but that was before last season where despite putting up some solid numbers he seemed to be less valuable. Oh and he isn’t exactly an iron man either.

I’ll say this Nassir Little to the Suns might be a nice smaller move. He could be a solid depth guy for a team planning to be a contender.

Speaking of contenders as Lon as there are teams with some sort of salary to match Jrue holiday should have a ton of value. I would think a contender would have zero problems giving up at least 2 first round picks for him. He is simply such a good 2-way player it’s exactly the type of guy some teams need and want. Miami makes a ton of sense he would fit in there so well. Portland could still come out of this Dame trade fairly well especially if they get more value out of Ayton. He may not be worth his contract but if he plays well and is a guy that’s easily worth 25 million or more a year adding him could end up being a nice move.

[Lipoli390]

Good trade for the Bucks. Should turn out to be a good trade for Portland depending on what they get for Holiday. So I’d say the deal will end up a win-win between those two teams. But there is a loser in this three-way deal - the Suns. I’m not sure what were thinking. Maybe they love the potential of Nassir Little.

[FNG]

As a Bucks fan I believe this makes them the favorites to win the championship. The Bucks achilles heel has been the lack of an elite closer in the playoffs. Giannis though great, isn't the guy you want to rely on in the last 2 minutes. He doesn't shoot it well enough and you can throw enough bodies at him to keep him from getting to the tin. In terms of closers, I'm not sure there is any better than Lillard. I see this as a perfect fit for the Bucks, and although they will miss Jrue, they are a harder team to play against now.

Maybe Cool...that's a terrific 1-2 punch. But they're going to have to do it by outscoring everyone, because a starting backcourt of Dame and Beasley (the de facto starter with Allen gone) is going to get lit up every night.

[Monster]

As a Bucks fan I believe this makes them the favorites to win the championship. The Bucks achilles heel has been the lack of an elite closer in the playoffs. Giannis though great, isn't the guy you want to rely on in the last 2 minutes. He doesn't shoot it well enough and you can throw enough bodies at him to keep him from getting to the tin. In terms of closers, I'm not sure there is any better than Lillard. I see this as a perfect fit for the Bucks, and although they will miss Jrue, they are a harder team to play against now.

Yep this is why the Bucks made the deal. They are all in and in theory Dame fits that group really well.

[Monster]

Good trade for the Bucks. Should turn out to be a good trade for Portland depending on what they get for Holiday. So I’d say the deal will end up a win-win between those two teams. But there is a loser in this three-way deal - the Suns. I’m not sure what were thinking. Maybe they love the potential of Nassir Little.

I think for the Suns it was about boosting their roster while saving money. Ayton is a nice young player that’s likely overpaid maybe by a lot. Nurkić might actually also be overpaid but he literally costs basically half as much money and he is actually a pretty good player. He might not play at times in the playoffs? Sure that happened with Ayton last year also right?

I’m not saying he is some awesome acquisition but for a team that may just need some guys to fill in at times Keon Johnson has some kinda interesting numbers offensively. Decent volume 3 point shooting and he even has some assists. What this deal might end up doing is setting the Suns up to make an in season deal as they have a bunch of perimeter players and various ways to match salaries. It feels like they could use another big or versatile higher end big forward although I assume Durant will be the guy playing a lot at PF for them.

[Coolbreeze44]

As a Bucks fan I believe this makes them the favorites to win the championship. The Bucks achilles heel has been the lack of an elite closer in the playoffs. Giannis though great, isn't the guy you want to rely on in the last 2 minutes. He doesn't shoot it well enough and you can throw enough bodies at him to keep him from getting to the tin. In terms of closers, I'm not sure there is any better than Lillard. I see this as a perfect fit for the Bucks, and although they will miss Jrue, they are a harder team to play against now.

Maybe Cool...that's a terrific 1-2 punch. But they're going to have to do it by outscoring everyone, because a starting backcourt of Dame and Beasley (the de facto starter with Allen gone) is going to get lit up every night.

Fungo, they have to of the NBA's best defenders in Giannis and Lopez backing them up. Further, Grayson wasn't good defensively.

I can't see Beasley starting. Maybe Connaughton or they slide Kris to the 2 and start Portis. They key is how soon all these pieces can mesh and play team basketball.

[Coolbreeze44]

The Suns badly needed depth and they achieved some of that with this trade. I don't believe any of the three teams fared poorlyl

[KG4Ever]

The Suns have traded away Mikal Bridges, Cam Johnson, CP3 and now Ayton and a bunch of draft picks for 30 year old Beal and 34 year old Durant. I just don't see the Suns winning anything and KD may only have a couple good years left and then this team implodes. The Nets, IMO, made out like bandits and not only have Mikal and Cam Johnson, but those picks in later years could be very nice. Net got picks in 25, 27 and 29 and swaps in 28.

Keep in mind that KD has missed a lot of time in past four years: He played 0 games in 19-20, 35 in 20-21, 55 in 21-22 and 47 in 22-23. So he's played 137 games in last four years or 34.25 games per year. He's getting older and so he's likely to miss a lot of games. Beal has also missed a lot of games in last four years. He has missed an average of about 30 games a season. Booker only played 53 games last year as he dealt with a reoccurring groin injury.

Vegas: Sell Suns, Buy Wolves!