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Originally Posted by Bryan_Wilson
I find the Suns part disingenuous at best...
The Suns didn't trade firsts to get Ayton like the Mavs did with Luka. The Suns didn't trade firsts to get booker like the Mavs did with KP. Comparing their moves after the arrival of KP can't be more night and day different from an asset perspective.
The Suns took 5 years to become competitive after drafting Booker. They surrounded him with so much "help" during that time that they drafted in the lottery every year after Booker was drafted. During that time they drafted in the top 5 in 3 different years(Bender-bust, Jackson-bust, Ayton- hard to bust a #1 pick but they could have had Luka), the 6th pick once(Traded down for Cam), and the 10th pick once(Jalen). The Mavs meanwhile after moving up for Luka immediately that season moved heaven and earth to get him a co-star. And have had 1 1st round pick since Luka's arrival(Green). Can anyone imagine how much this place would meltdown if we took 5 years being patient and drafting and busting like the Suns did after Booker? We made it to the playoffs the year after Luka got here and we meltdown in every GDT. Luka's skill alone makes us drafting in the top 5 let alone number 1 impossible though honestly.
We are comparing a team that has picked in the lottery for like 12 of the last 14 years to the Mavs who have been competitive with the exception of Dirks final years for an incredibly long time. Those things matter because the Steve Nash trade to LA led to the drafting of Mikal Bridges. They are a good looking team and grats to them but the only area the Mavs are total failures imo is free agency. Even if people want to complain about Bey vs Green that's one pick and one that was significantly later than the Suns have picked since Booker's arrival.
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100% this.
Suns have missed the playoffs for 11 consecutive years. In that time, Mavs made the playoffs seven times. That's a lot of lottery picks that the Mavs simply didn't have, because we were actually kinda good.
Then you end up trading three FRPs for Luka/KP and it's pretty clear how different our situations are-- so different that it's not even a fair comparison.
I mean, you can say we shouldn't have traded away the picks, but Young and Reddish for Luka seems to be a darn good trade. KP is disappointing, but everyone we traded was trash, the two picks are likely to be late/mid FRPs, and THJ has actually been a nice starter for us even if his defense is more Finley than Kawhi.