The Bucks were interested in acquiring Damian Lillard immediately after he made his trade request on July 1, but the deal didn’t start to come together until this past Sunday.
As Adrian Wojnarowski writes in an in-depth story for ESPN (Insider link), Bucks general manager Jon Horst told Trail Blazers GM Joe Cronin from the outset that their talks had to remain a secret or Milwaukee would withdraw from negotiations.
According to Wojnarowski, Horst didn’t want Jrue Holiday to be involved in any trade rumors, or used as leverage by Cronin with other teams to increase offers for Lillard. The Bucks didn’t want to disrupt their chemistry and hold Holiday in very high regard. That meant Cronin was unable to gauge Holiday’s market value before agreeing to the trade.
As Wojnarowski details, Horst told Cronin that the only way a deal would work is if the Blazers took their time fielding offers and eventually circled back to Milwaukee for one-on-one talks. That started Sunday evening, with both sides feeling like they had reached a breakthrough.
Cronin was determined to say patient and accept the best possible offer, per Woj, and kept details of Lillard negotiations hidden from prying eyes. Lillard’s agent, Aaron Goodwin, was determined to steer him to Miami, but Lillard didn’t have much leverage. Wojnarowski strongly suggests Cronin felt the need to keep things private from Goodwin in case he tried to tank trade talks with non-Heat teams.
One of the most fascinating and “delicate” parts of the deal was Phoenix’s involvement. According to Wojnarowski, the Blazers and Suns had the outline of a trade together for months — Deandre Ayton to Portland for Jusuf Nurkic. Cronin wanted to tie that agreement into any Lillard trade, so throughout the offseason he kept circling back to the Suns.
However, as Wojnarowski writes, due to Milwaukee’s insistence on secrecy, Cronin was unable to tell Suns CEO Josh Bartelstein the final details until the last minute. According to Woj, Phoenix knew it was getting Nurkic, Nassir Little and Keon Johnson from the Blazers in a three-team deal, but the Suns wanted another asset in return.
Cronin was unable to tell the Suns who that player was — or who he played for. Cronin did tell the Suns the mystery player’s position and gave an approximation of his salary, and Phoenix was able to deduce it was either Thunder guard Victor Oladipo or Bucks guard Grayson Allen.
Only on Wednesday afternoon — just before the trade was made public — did Cronin confirm that it was Allen, whom the Suns had reportedly been interested in for several months. According to Wojnarowski, Bartelstein, GM James Jones and owner Mat Ishbia quickly discussed and then agreed to the deal.
The Blazers were happy and relieved to have completed the deal, per Woj, and believed they did right by Lillard by sending him to a contender, even if it wasn’t his preferred destination. Shortly thereafter, Cronin was bombarded by calls inquiring about Holiday, who is now the hottest name on the trade block.
Wojnarowki’s full story is definitely worth reading in full if you subscribe to ESPN+.
Initially I was actually impressed by the trade from Portland perspective being that they got Ayton, but seeing now that Ayton was a deal already made outside of trading Lillard, the trade is quite pathetic. Best deal possible? All they got was Jrue Holiday, who is useless to them and one First rdr. Really? What a joke
You think Holiday’s gonna be traded for peanuts? He’s gonna bring them at least another first and a picks swap
Holiday nets 2 firsts
Haha, so Lillard only nets 1 first, but Holiday gonna net 2? Bwahahaha, y’all are so delusional.
So according to what you just said, Holiday has the same value as Lillard?
How is this pathetic? Jrue Holliday is arguably the best defensive point guard in the league. A champion and a legit offensive threat. His trade value should be 3 first rounders and a couple solid pieces
Hes expiring and 35 tone it down a little with the Gobert packages…
@chapvac- he’s actually 33 1/2, with 1 year and then a player option for more than $37 mil. I think it’s a fair guess that if he likes the team/city he ends up with he’d be willing to stick around either by picking up the option or signing a slightly lower extension than what he’d net on the open market.
K-Blow Wrong again. Still wrong. ALWAYS wrong. Amazingly wrong.
Except im right. But sure go ahead, tell me how Portland is better with Holiday instead of Lillard? Ahahahahaha, dafuq wrong with you?
As he said you are always wrong, Lillard was out and Holiday will be soon too, Portland is “better” because they are in full rebuild. Lillard netted just 1 first because there were many other assets involved, including Holiday who will bring more 1sts to PDX. Jrue cost Milw. 4 FIRST so at least will bring a couple to PDX.
All this facts are just obvious but it has to be pointed out since you have the reasoning of a 5 yr old
Wtf are you talking about?. Look at the deal. All the got was 1 first. Where tf you get 4? Again y’all delusional.
And again, y’all delusional, how you gonna trade Holiday without taking someone back? You want to talk about my reasoning yet y’all keep coming up with imaginary ideas that have no factual basis. I’ve said it before I’ll said it again. Give me an actual example with financial logic. Until then stop this nonsense about reasoning like you know what you’re talking about
Holiday isn’t bringing back more than one 1st.
NOP got 4 1sts for a 29 year old pg making less than 30 mill.
Holiday is now 33 and making 35 mill this year and 37 next year.
His suitors are limited significantly.
*contender
*has contract salaries to match
*available 1st
So Blazers get a 1st that could be a back end 1st from MIL, couple pick swaps from MIL, Ayton on a max contract, and another 1st that could be a back end 1st for Holiday?
Not all that great of a deal. And chances are those 1st round picks may not amount to anything. Time will tell how the deal shakes put. But doesn’t look good for Portland currently.
Somebody with the same screen name thought MIA shouldn’t offer more than a toxic contract (Robinson), an expiring one (Lowry) and a couple of SRPs for Lillard. Even if Holiday retires tommorrow this is a grand slam compared to that.
Great point, Holiday is a beast. No wonder why the Bucks destroyed the Heat in 5 games and then got to the Finals…..oh wait, ahahahaha!!!
Portland scored big time. Bucks will regret this trade. They got one first round and two swaps from the Bucks. All those three will be very valuable, as Middleton and Lopez are/will be mid thirties in next two years. Lillard is 31 and 6’1 guard. Those don’t age well. They have no young players behind them or picks coming up so Giannis will be gone in the next year or two max. Those picks are going to be gold.
Portland would’ve likely had to add a kick to send to the Suns without this trade to get Ayton. Now they didn’t.
And they will get at least one young player eith potential and a first round pick, or two first round picks for Jrue. Teams will want him over Harden.
I think this trade was bad for the Bucks, and this trade was bad for Harden. Bucks will be rebuilding with a 34 year old Lillard getting paid $60 million that no one wants, and with no picks.
All three will be valuable? Maybe. Or maybe not. Only one of those is an additional pick. The other are swaps. So it only benefits if Bucks are worse than Portland. How you know that is gonna happen. Bucks have a better organization, meaning they have a better chance of being better than Portland.
Jrue is not getting two firsts unless they are very late picks. Remember you got to match salary. What’s the deal?
Those Bucks picks will only be valuable if Giannis bails out. By himself with 4 schmucks the Bucks are a playoff team.
@Johnny, Unless they win a ring or two… and then whatever happens later will have been worth it.
John Stockton played (and started) into his early 40s and was 6-1 and 170 lbs soaking wet. He missed 22 games in 19 years. Some guards age very well, and others don’t.
Dallas Mavericks!!
It would be nice if every GM took the Bucks approach in this trade. I think for the public is better when blockbusters come out of nowhere than having it announced for weeks. And for the players it is one less distraction to deal with
Every potential acquiring team maybe. But teams looking to move stars want to leak stuff about mystery teams being interested to up the price, just like agents do for their free agent clients.
But yeah, it’d be nice if there was less garbage put out by all sides and deals got done more quietly.
Of course, what would we TR followers do with our time though..?
Doesn’t change the fact that Horst was willing to trade Holiday, he just didn’t want Holiday to know in case they wasn’t a deal to be made.
Of course. I wrote this thinking of Brogdon. It was leaked that he was being shopped. Now he remains a Celtic but he must be upset and that may hurt his game which is an issue since without Smart he should be more important. Players should be more respected, If you’re gonna leak something at least make sure the rumor has some ground, not just clickbait
Woj shilling for Cronin
Woj is basically putting his name on Joe Cronin’s defense … Hard to believe it as Cronin lied so many times already. Lied about not rebuilding but drafted 19 yr olds and wants to stockpile draft picks. Lied about Lillard’s calf injury. Lied to Lillard that if he sat out they could get a better pick they would trade for help for Dame. Lied that Dame’s Miami preference had scared away the market when he supposedly had Bucks offering an all star. Lying now that Aston is part of Dame trade when the Grayson Allen piece was a small part of trade and easily replaceable. Anton was acquired for 3 Blazers and a bench piece Allen. Lies now that a Buck pick in 2029and swaps are more valuable than multiple Heat picks and swaps. Giannis will be 34 in 29 when Butler will be 40. If Giannis at 34 isn’t going to be great anymore why would Dame at 33 and Jrue at 33 be so valuable? Sorry but Cronin is not trustworthy and Woj has disgraced his name rubberstamping this without asking the hard questions of him. So the Bucks didn’t tell Goodwin they had been working on the trade for months when he spoke to them two weeks ago to say Dame would come???? No one with half a brain would believe that!!
Ayton. Also why isn’t the league fining Portland for admitted tanking and lying about an injury when they fine others like Dallas???
Cronin did right by the Blazers…
Played the cards they were dealt very smartly…
Holiday as a 2 way player fits on more teams… The Blazers will get more value out of Dame yet…
The more I read about Aaron Goodwin, the more I hope he gets hit by a bus.
The best thing about this 3-team trade… somehow everybody won. POR, PHX, and MIL are better because of these trades. I’d like to see Jrue Holiday find a spot to compete, too. He’s certainly shown he’s earned it.