This week’s trade of DeAndre Ayton and Toumani Camara for Jusuf Nurkic, Grayson Allen, Nassir Little, and Keon Johnson brought howls of protest from Phoenix Suns fans and clucking of tongues from NBA commentators like Charles Barkley and Kendrick Perkins. However, I haven’t seen any analysis of this trade using outcome-based statistics that try to measure on-court impact. Sure, Ayton is immensely talented, but his focus drifted in and out and he was frequently in Monty Williams’ doghouse. I wanted to try and answer: how valuable was he? Did he deserve the benchings he got? What was his actual on-court value compared to the guys he was traded for?
Understanding the rationale of trading Ayton for Nurkic, Allen, Little, and Johnson through analytics
