The obvious, easy, logical KD trade not being discussed ....

[F Gump]

My biggest problem with this trade is that Nico has said AD was HIS guy.

If the end game was to get KD all along, why not just trade Luka for KD and avoid all of that?

1 Nico has to go, so even if he's as committed to AD as he says, it's solved by firing Nico first. But let's be real -- if Luka can be traded, so can AD. 
2 I don't think combining Luka and Booker would have been desirable for PHX. But they could like AD a lot imo. Also, the salary numbers for a trade match were very different - salaries change on July 1.
3 We can't go back and play what-if on what already was done. We have to move forward from where we are, and that's what I'm trying to think through (rather than be stuck in the past and be bound to any Nico thinking).