After months of speculation and all signs pointing to the Portland Trail Blazers making a blockbuster trade with the Miami Heat, things took a drastic turn on Wednesday, with a three-team trade going down to send superstar guard Damian Lillard to the Milwaukee Bucks.
Earlier in the week, the Toronto Raptors emerged as the favorite to land Lillard, with Portland said to be engaged in trade talks with the Canadian franchise.
Although there seemed to be a lot of momentum toward a deal between the Raptors and Blazers, Toronto fell out of the running, with the Phoenix Suns and Bucks entering these trade talks.
As part of the three-team trade between the Bucks, Suns, and Blazers, Phoenix acquired Jusuf Nurkic, Grayson Allen, Nassir Little and Keon Johnson.
After the news hit the Twitterverse, Nurkic took to his Twitter account with a hilarious tweet about his excitement about getting traded to Phoenix.
Super EXCITED for my next chapter. @Suns ☀️☀️💪🏻 pic.twitter.com/H6mLmAgXKg
— Jusuf Nurkić 🇧🇦 (@bosnianbeast27) September 27, 2023
With the Suns bringing in four players, headlined by Nurkic, Phoenix sent Deandre Ayton to Portland as their major contribution to the trade, which is a player that has been on the trading block for the Suns for quite some time.
This is an interesting move by the Suns as it addresses the issue of depth while being able to replace Ayton with Nurkic.
Only time will tell how this trade panned out for all three teams involved, as each team got some notable pieces in the trade, which should help them moving forward.
