Trade & FA 2024-25:

[SleepingHero]

Wow, that’s not how I remember it at all. From what I recall, most were adamantly against Ayton, and rightfully so. SleepingHero was into it, and I feel like maybe Dan was, too.

It was pretty much me being the loudest voice for Ayton. I think Dan had some positive things to say about possible Ayton reclamation project based on his past finals performance. 

Dougie also was pretty interested.

But we were definitely the minority. Basically every conversation was about the contract value and what it'd take to get him. 

For the most part I argued it had to be some variation of THJ+Holmes+McGee. I figured all of those contracts were dead money anyways so Ayton was a value. PHX found value in breaking up Ayton into smaller moveable contracts, and Stein said they were interested in THJ+Holmes, but not McGee, which was the hangup. A S/W of McGee plus the Thybulle contract would've put the Mavs over the 1st apron for that season (which didn't make sense at the time). 

I was not interested in sending the #10 pick for Ayton, so in that limited sense I was all for him. 

I am glad they didn't do it and I was wrong.