Chris Gardner. Getty Images.This is the Danny Ainge I know and love. At first I had to double and triple check to make sure it was a real account and real tweet because it looked like something a parody account would post about Danny Ainge requesting a trade, but now I know it is real and it makes me love him even more.
There's no doubt that Lauri Markkanen is a great player. Since FIBA a few years ago, he's developed into one of the best stretch bigs in the entire league.
Needless to say, he's only making $18 million this season, but that's a fantastic value for a player who is 7 feet tall and a third-level scorer while still producing at an All-Star level. The downside is that he's in the final year of his contract, so trading him could be risky unless there's some sort of extension attached, but we'll see about that in hindsight.
The beauty of Ainge's approach here isn't just that it's classic Trader Danny, but that he knows he's acting from a position of advantage. He doesn't have to trade Markkanen, but everyone has a price in the NBA, and if anyone is willing to meet Ainge's obviously insane asking price, he'll make a deal. We've seen it with Gobert, Mitchell, Boston's Big Three, and others.
The Warriors are desperate at this point. They need to add talent to their team that can win now to help Stephen Curry, but they also need to find players who can fit into the world after Stephen Curry is gone. Essentially, they have zero leverage. When you're operating with little to no leverage, you're over the cap and can't afford to spend big in free agency, so you have to pay big in trades if you want to secure elite talent. especially This is true when you're trading with Trader Danny.
I think he looks at the league, looks at the KD and Mikal Bridges trades, and uses that to set a base price. Remember, a player's value isn't how good he is, but how much leverage the team can bring to the table. Would Ainge care if Markkanen left for free in free agency? The Jazz are rebuilding right now. It would certainly be poor asset management to lose Lowry for free at the deadline instead of selling him to someone who might be desperate, but UTA may have signed him to a higher salary extension so they can move him after he's in his prime in the NBA.
But don't get me wrong, this is a typical Danny Ainge starting price, and that's why I like it so much. It's very much on-brand for him to ask for not only the Warriors' best young prospects, but also 9-12 draft picks total. Hey, if you don't ask, you don't get, right? Again, he has the leverage, so he might as well use it.
