Suns would be interested in trading Deandre Ayton for Jusuf Nurkic?

By HoopsHype | September 21, 2023

John Gambadoro: Let me address some of the Deandre Ayton rumors. The Suns have not been willing to move DA all summer because they think he fits well and there were no offers that would change that. If Jusuf Nurkic was on the table I would be surprised if the Suns didn’t look into it because an argument could be made that is an upgrade for Phx. This would be contingent on Damian Lillard being moved. Portland has previously shown no interest in DA but that was with Dame staying. If they do not have Dame on the roster they could very well want a young 25-year-old to build around. Vogel needs a defensive minded Center to build his defense around and Nurkic does fit that mold. This would be contingent on a Lillard trade and I expect do expect that to happen very very soon.Source: Twitter More on this storyline The future Hall-of-Famer also offered up his own personal take on what the best year of his career was, something that’s often debated between the likes of the 2019-20 bubble season, the 2020-21 campaign, and his most recent brilliance from 2022-23. “I feel like this past season was my best season. I had like a 35-game stretch where I averaged like 39. It was like December to March, and I had 50, I had 60, I had 70. I had 40 a bunch of times. And every game I went out there, like, they gone try their hardest to gameplan, but I felt like it didn’t matter what nobody did, I’m gone score 40. And I wasn’t even going out there trying to hog. I was just in a good rhythm, I was in flow, I was healthy. -via Blazers Edge / September 21, 2023 In terms of on-court play, Lillard did offer some commentary into his thoughts on playing in the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics. Citing fatherhood and family as one potential reason why he might not participate, he did offer this: “I would want to do it just to get a healthy one in, because I was hurt like a motherf— , I ended up having surgery right after that. But, just to get a healthy one in, being able to play with all of them. Being able to step outside of my role and be able to just catch-and-shoot, get up and down, have some fun, that’d be cool.” -via Blazers Edge / September 21, 2023