Woj: Damian Lillard Traded to the Bucks (Official)

[SparzWizard]

Wow this could shake things up in the East.

Giannis and Lillard duo? The Bucks get stronger on their starting 5.

[86MaxwellSmart]

I wonder if Dame will report to camp....

[SparzWizard]

Bucks new favorites in the East with Lillard?

At least now this saves us the headache of a potential Giannis to Lakers speculation at least for another two years or so.

[Birdman]

Glad Portland didn’t cave in and traded him to Miami

[Birdman]

Great trade for all 3 teams

Portland getting Ayton & Holiday to go with Grant & Simons
Suns got to be favorites in West after getting Beal, Nurkic, & some great bench pieces
Bucks with 2 top 10 players in Giannis & Lillard to go along with Portis, Lopez & Middleton

[liam]

Glad Portland didn’t cave in and traded him to Miami

Portland got a haul.

[cman88]

Not sure why everyone so down on the Celtics now.

They still are a top team in the east and at least on equal par with Milwaukee.

Let's see how the season bears out. Dame is more talented, but Holiday was no slouch and better defender

[liam]

Great trade for all 3 teams

Portland getting Ayton & Holiday to go with Grant & Simons
Suns got to be favorites in West after getting Beal, Nurkic, & some great bench pieces
Bucks with 2 top 10 players in Giannis & Lillard to go along with Portis, Lopez & Middleton

Portland has too many guards and Holiday would look great in Boston!

[Who]

Lillard & Giannis is a phenomenal 1-2 punch.

[Who]

I'm trying to figure out the Bucks depth chart:

PG -- Lillard,
SG -- Connaughton, Beasley
SF -- Middleton, Crowder
PF -- Giannis, Portis
C -- Lopez, Portis

So at guard you have Lillard, and then...I consider Connaughton a pretty nice backup and Beasley a fringe NBA player. So it's basically just Dame. Connaughton is okay. No depth at all.

Middleton was a shell of himself but he's still a good player. Crowder...is somewhat done at the small forward position? I regard him similar to Beasley. So just Middleton.

Giannis, Lopez, Portis is the best big man rotation in the game and is top notch in all combinations.

It's just very, very top-heavy. If Middleton doesn't bounce back, then they have atrocious wing depth and either way will require Dame to play 40+ minutes a game in the playoffs because there's no backup for him. Am I missing someone? All-in moves can work...it can just cut against you too. Is Dame going to hold up getting switched onto Brown and Tatum or Herro and Butler all game?

Yeah, 6 man team.

Three starting perimeter players. No good or even adequate bench depth. Strong three man big man rotation. Only good bench piece. A top bench piece at that though.

Crowder should be a bench PF at this stage in his career. He isn't quick enough for the SF anymore. MIL's weak perimeter D is only going to get weaker. Ditto with M Beasley who is a lousy defensive player. Both of these guys are liabilities who will actively hurt MIL and make them worse.

[Who]

Given how little depth MIL has, I would say that Boston is still the team to beat in the East.

[Vermont Green]

The trade makes sense for all teams.  MIL getting Lillard is of course brilliant.  He is a top player to pair with Giannis.  And not really giving up all that much.  Holiday is good but replaced by Lillard.  The core remains in tact.  It looks like the primary backcourt will be Lillard and Beasley, that is exploitable from a defensive standpoint but Lillard and just about anyone is still a dangerous backcourt.

I like POR getting Ayton.  I don't understand why PHX has given up on him.  He is a great player to add to the young mix in POR.  PHX kind of splits Ayton into Jusuf Nurkic, Grayson Allen, and young bench players.  That isn't great in my mind but it seems that they had made up their mind to move on from Ayton and they need depth so I guess we'll see.

Overall:

POR:   A-  (they did well under the circumstances, but are still giving up the best player)
MIL:    A-  (hard to give an A+ when they give up Holiday)
PHX:   B-  (They got some depth but I don't think full value for Ayton)

[libermaniac]

Great trade for all 3 teams

Portland getting Ayton & Holiday to go with Grant & Simons
Suns got to be favorites in West after getting Beal, Nurkic, & some great bench pieces
Bucks with 2 top 10 players in Giannis & Lillard to go along with Portis, Lopez & Middleton

Portland has too many guards and Holiday would look great in Boston!

True but what would a trade look like? Brogdon makes way less than Jrue.

[Roy H.]

Great trade for all 3 teams

Portland getting Ayton & Holiday to go with Grant & Simons
Suns got to be favorites in West after getting Beal, Nurkic, & some great bench pieces
Bucks with 2 top 10 players in Giannis & Lillard to go along with Portis, Lopez & Middleton

Portland has too many guards and Holiday would look great in Boston!

True but what would a trade look like? Brogdon makes way less than Jrue.

Maybe we can wait until December and trade away the pupu platter of free agents we signed, haha.

[rocknrollforyoursoul]

Let Milwaukee be the favorite, because 1) the early favorite usually doesn't win it all, and 2) the Celtics tend to underperform when they're the favorites.