Bill Simmons asks why couldn't we trade down for Jaylen Brown and pick up another asset


Bill Simmons asked the same question on Toucher & Rich this morning that I had been asking for a while now and especially last night. If Jaylen Brown is your guy, that's fine. You should 100% draft him. But if no one else has him in their top 6 why not trade down? Even if you end up only getting a future pick or a player like Dieng from Minnesota you're still getting something.

I only have two possible explanations for Ainge staying at 3 to pick Brown. One would be he spent so much time talking bout trading he pick to Philly or Chicago that he didn't have the time to have contingency trades to trade back in the draft if those trades didn't pan out. The other is that Phoenix secretly had Brown and Bender as their 1,2 on their board and since their GM used to work for Ainge told him that Brown wouldn't still be around after 4. No other situation makes sense. Now I haven't heard anyone say that the Suns were considering Brown at #4, but at least if that was the case then we'd have a legitimate reason not to trade down.

As it is now, I like Brown and obviously hope he becomes a star, but I'd like him even more if he also came with a future 1st, or a big man like Dieng or Nurkic. As you saw once the Celtics pick was made and they passed on Dunn, Boston ceased being the team anyone wanted to trade with. No one was clamoring to trade for a high pick to draft Jaylen. They all wanted Dunn. Butler is now off the table. Philly package as well. Brown is a good pick, but their seems to have been more value in pick #3 than Danny acquired.

Like I said a simple trade of #3 for #5 and Dieng would have been satisfactory. Or #3 for #6 and future Pelicans 1st rounder. Didn't need to be a blockbuster.