Are they nuts? Phoenix Suns will regret trading Deandre Ayton to Portland

My gut tells me that the Suns are going to regret trading Deandre Ayton to Portland.

I hope I’m wrong, but I’m usually not.

Multiple outlets, including The Arizona Republic's Duane Rankin, are reporting a three-team deal, involving Phoenix, Portland and Milwaukee, headlined by Ayton and Damian Lillard. (ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski apparently had it first, if you’re into that sort of thing.)

More: Deandre Ayton era over in Phoenix: Suns trade big to Blazers, Damian Lillard headed to Bucks

Ayton isn’t the kind of player who’s easy to come by, and with the right coach (oh, maybe a coach like Frank Vogel) he could have turned into a rebounding, lob catching force.

Now, we’re going to have to hold our breath watching the Blazers. as Ayton could easily turn into an MVP candidate up there. (And with Ayton’s personality, he’ll be the most popular Pacific Northwestern big man since Bill Walton.)

The Suns got a haul of role players in return, most notably Jusuf Nurkic, who’s big and strong and good when he’s on the court. But the Bosnian Bear gets too many boo-boos for me to want to include him in a picnic.

Still, when he’s healthy, Nurkic can play.

Casual fans won’t know much about the other players coming to Phoenix, Keon Johnson, Nassir Little and Grayson Allen.

But Suns General Manager James Jones has an eye for these things. He’s picked up plenty of guys who’ve outperformed expectations during their time in purple and orange. Cam Johnson. Cam Payne. Bismack Biyombo. Josh Okogie.

Out of deference to Jones, we’ll reserve judgment here.

But I hate the idea of Damian Lillard heading to Milwaukee.

I run out of superlatives trying to describe Lillard’s game and leadership. And as much as I can talk, that’s saying something. Lillard has dealt with injury problems in recent seasons, but isn’t that mostly just him fighting through back problems from trying to carry an entire franchise by himself?

Now that he’s got All-Stars Giannis Antetokounmpo, Khris Middleton and Brook Lopez to run with, we can expect Logo Lillard to put himself in range for his first NBA title.

In fact, if the Suns get where they want to go this season, which is to the NBA Finals, there’s a very, very strong chance that Lillard will be the one to rap them when they get there.

My gut tells me the Suns are going to regret this.

I hope I’m wrong, but I’m usually not.

Reach Moore at gmoore@azcentral.com or 602-444-2236. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, @SayingMoore.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Phoenix Suns will regret trading Deandre Ayton despite haul of role players