In the ever-dramatic world of professional basketball, where rivalries are born and legends are made, the NBA landscape has once again been reshaped by a seismic event. The league’s fervent fans and astute analysts have been buzzing with anticipation, as reports swirled of a blockbuster trade involving a three team deal between the Suns, Bucks, and the Trail Blazers. This trade, with its ripple effect on team dynamics and championship aspirations, promises to be the focal point for this season at least and maybe more to come.
The whispers of a trade from the Portland Trail Blazers emerged during the draft and emerged like a raging storm over this past weekend. As the hype of it settles, it’s time to dissect the trade from every angle. Whether it be motivations behind the trade to potential impacts to teams beyond the three involved with this trade, we will cover. But most especially, we will have to cover what this means for Damian Lillard, the main man being traded.
To start, we have to talk about what was actually traded during this blockbuster of a move. The team which received the most overall was the Trail Blazers, who received Jrue Holiday, Deandre Ayton, Toumani Camara, Milwaukee’s 2029 unprotected first-round draft pick and unprotected Milwaukee swap rights in 2028 and 2030. The Suns received Jusuf Nurkic, Grayson Allen, Nassir Little and Keon Johnson as part of the trade package. And finally, the bucks got Damian Lillard out of this trade.
Each team came out of this trade with exactly what they wanted. The needs addressed by the suns were that they need depth on the wing and needed a more traditional center. The Suns with so much firepower on offense did not need another man, Deandre Ayton, needing the ball, so they got Nurkic who will be stable in the post and have much more of a presence defensively in the paint. We will just have to see if he can stay on the floor, as he has been injury prone as of late. Next, the Trail Blazers fulfilled their basic need of getting as much out of Damian Lillard as possible. They knew that he did not want to stay there and are now in full rebuild mode, setting up for the future. Getting a player such as Deandre Ayton who can now flourish on a not so great team is also a good building block as he is still relatively young. Now, for the team that realistically won this trade the most, the Bucks got Damian Lillard out of this trade. A player who is capable of spacing the floor and putting up 30+ each night is now getting paired with the most dominant force in the NBA, Giannis Antetokounmpo. This is a huge addition as they were able to retain players from years past and now with the addition of Dame the rest of the league will be hard-pressed to stop them on their path to another championship.
Now to talk about how this trade affects the main man, Damian Lillard. Damian Lillard is a player who has been plagued by being on a terrible organization, and has constantly had to carry the burden of the whole team. He has made runs in the playoffs, but nothing substantial like making it to the NBA finals. After this last season, which was a bit of a let-down for the Blazers, Dame formally requested a trade from the team. After some time a deal was made, and he is now in one of the best positions he could have been traded to. He is for the first time on a team where he will immediately be a championship contender.
The three teams involved in this trade were not the only teams affected by this, as the rest of the league was put on notice. The biggest team directly impacted by this trade was the Celtics, as they just recently made a trade for Jrue Holiday in an effort to match themselves up against the Bucks next year. Will this trade work out for the Celtics? Not many people know as they have added a lot of new pieces this off season and as a fan of the league as a whole I am excited to see if they will be able to work it out.
This blockbuster of a trade has shaken up the league and without the season having started yet, we are uncertain as to how these teams will pan out. Will the Suns figure out this new-look team? Will the Bucks win the championship with this stacked roster? Who knows, we will just have to find out when the season starts up later this October.
