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This week the summer long saga of where Damian Lillard will play next season came to an end, for Lillard found a new home in Milwaukee where he will pair up with Giannis Antetokounmpo to hopefully win a championship becoming the new odds-on favorite. But not everyone involved in this trade won, so here are my winners and losers from this surprising three team trade.
Winners
Portland Trailblazers: This may seem harsh and insane to say right now but the Blazers are winners in this trade. Yes, trading away their best player in franchise history sucks but they can now focus on this rebuild and go forward with young talent and future stars like Shaedon Sharpe, Scoot Henderson, and newly acquired center DeAndre Ayton who could be the core for years to come with this new chapter in blazer history.
Deandre Ayton: Besides Dame and Giannis being winners from this trade the other winner no one is seeing at the moment is former #1 pick Deandre Ayton. If there was a “Change of scenery” all-star team the starting center would be Ayton. Desperately needing a fresh start after his time in Phoenix where he was often the bottom of the totem pole along with the team questioning his dedication to the team was probably a good time to move on from each other where Ayton can become the best version of himself in Portland.
Dame, Giannis & The Bucks: The obvious winner here is Damian Lillard, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and the Bucks franchise. All are tied together from Lillard playing for a legitimate contender for a title to Giannis keeping the pressure on the team to be serious about winning more championships to the Bucks responding and delivering on putting a contender around Antetokounmpo to hopefully keep him a Buck for life and back in the title picture this upcoming season.
Losers
Miami Heat: Well, let’s begin with the Heat who were the front runners to get Lillard all offseason and ended up being the biggest loser for not nailing the trade down. Maybe if they added a third team to give another asset to Portland along with what Miami presented could have been enough to bring Dame to South Beach. I am sure the Heat will be ok and probably land a player who may fit the Heat culture better going forward.
Boston Celtics: In an odd way the Celtics are kind of losers from this trade because they now have to worry about the extremely dangerous Dame/Giannis pick and roll situation they certainly will face in the future. This might make the Celtics regret trading defensive Stallworth point guard Marcus Smart this offseason, hopefully Derrick White is up for the task.
Phoenix Suns: The obvious loser in this trade is the Suns who you can say added much needed depth to their roster with acquiring Grayson Allen from the Bucks along with Jursef Nurkic, Nassir Little, and Keon Johnson from the Blazers but will it be good dependable depth for the playoffs and be as good or better help than what Deandre Ayton could have been for the Suns this season?
Sure, Nurkic is a more physical presence than Ayton was, but he is a bigger defensive liability than Ayton was and a bigger health risk with his scroll of injuries he has had since 2018. Allen who can be helpful for their offense as far shooting goes but the past two postseasons Allen has shown he cannot stay on the floor because his awful defense which will hurt the Suns long term. Little and Johnson can be potential wild cards for the Suns, the Matt Ishbia era has had an interesting start in Phoenix to say the least hopefully the gambles taken so far will pay off.
