Now this ladies and gentlemen, is the Danny Ainge I know and love. At first I had to double and triple check in order to make sure that was a real account and a real tweet given that it reads like something a parody account would put out when it comes to a Danny Ainge trade request, but now that we know it’s real it makes me love him even more.

There is no doubt Lauri Markkanen is a hell of a player. Ever since FIBA a few summers ago he’s turned himself into one of the best stretch bigs in the entire league

not to mention he only has an $18M salary this season which for a player putting up All Star type production while being a three level scorer at 7ft is fantastic value. The downside is he’s in the final year of his deal so trading for him could come at a risk unless there’s an extension of some kind attached to it, but you figure that shit out later.

The beauty of Ainge’s approach here isn’t just that it’s vintage Trader Danny, it’s that he knows he operates from a place of leverage. He doesn’t need to trade Markkanen, but as we know in the NBA everyone has a price. If you’re willing to meet Ainge’s admittedly insane asking price, he’ll do a deal. We saw it with Gobert, we saw it with Mitchell, we saw it with the Big 3 in Boston etc. 

At the moment, the Warriors are desperate. They need to add win now talent to help Steph Curry while also finding players who can fit the timeline of a post-Steph world. Basically, they have zero leverage. When you’re operating with little to no leverage, you have to overpay in trades if you want to secure elite talent while also being over the cap and not having a ton of free agent money to throw around. That is especially true when you’re dealing with Trader Danny.

I imagine he looks across the league and sees the deals that happened for KD and Mikal Bridges and uses that to set his benchmark price. Remember, a player’s value isn’t what he’s worth, it’s what the team is able to with their leverage in negotiations. Even if Markkanen somehow walks for nothing in free agency, you think Ainge gives a shit? The Jazz are rebuilding right now. Granted it would be a mismanaged asset to lose Lauri for nothing instead of flipping him at least at the deadline to someone who might be desperate, but for all we know UTA extends him at a higher salary number just to move him later as he enters his NBA prime. 

But make no mistake, this is a classic insane Danny Ainge starting price which is why I love it so much. Very on brand for him to ask for not only the Warriors’ most promising young player, but also a total of 9-12 draft picks. Hey, you can’t get what you don’t ask for right? Again, he has the leverage so you may we well use it. 

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