Bucks, Sixers or Suns - who has the brighter future?

Almost a month has passed since the end of a wild and wonderful NBA trade deadline, which saw almost 10 per cent of the league being traded.

The most surprising trade was the one involving the Milwaukee Bucks, Philadelphia 76ers and the Phoenix Suns.

Here’s the crux of the trade:

Milwaukee
Received: Michael Carter-Williams, Miles Plumlee and Tyler Ennis.

Gave: Brandon Knight.

Philadelphia
Received: LA Lakers’ first-round draft pick.

Gave: Michael Carter-Williams.

Phoenix
Received: Brandon Knight.

Gave: Miles Plumlee, Tyler Ennis, LA Lakers’ first-round draft pick.

The Suns received LA’s draft pick for dealing Steve Nash to the Lakers in 2012, and with the Lakers floundering it could become a very valuable pick.

It does come with protections however. The Lakers keep the pick if it falls in the top five of this year’s draft. If that happens, it gets rolled over to 2016 where it’s protected from picks one through three, and then finally fully unprotected in 2017.

Currently – with the Lakers owning the fourth-worst record in the league – there’s roughly a 15 per cent chance this pick will fall out of the top five and into the sixth spot of a loaded 2015 draft, thus handing the pick to the Sixers.

There’s a little bit of the unknown attached to this pick but we know at some point it’s going to end up a first rounder, and likely a high first-rounder.

And that’s what Sixers general manager Sam Hinkie was counting on when he traded Carter-Williams. He’s not interested in just having good players on his team, he wants a superstar. And that Lakers pick represent a potential superstar.

This isn’t the first time the Sixers GM has traded his starting point guard for a draft pick. That dishonour belongs to Jrue Holiday, who was coming off an All-Star season when shipped off to New Orleans on draft night of 2013. That trade allowed the Sixers to draft Nerlens Noel, who’s looking like a very promising centre, in a bold and aggressive move by a rookie GM.

Trading Carter-Williams isn’t about the Sixers writing him off or calling him a bust, it’s just they are willing to gamble they can get a better player with that pick.

As for, Phoenix they are also gambling. Giving up, potentially such a good draft pick was a steep price to pay for Brandon Knight, who becomes a restricted free agent at the end of the season.

If Knight does indeed sign elsewhere, the Suns in essence would have lost two young players and a potentially very valuable draft pick for half a season of Brandon Knight. Obviously not a great return.

They also could have just kept Isaiah Thomas – who’s now killing it in Boston – for the rest of the season and then gone after Knight in free agency.

Then again maybe Phoenix re-signs Knight and he becomes the perfect running mate for Eric Bledsoe. Or maybe the pick from the Lakers somehow only turns into a late first-rounder. Well if that all happens, then maybe this is an OK deal, but it’s still a risky one.

The Bucks on the other hand have come out of the trade relatively risk free. Sure they lost a good player, but they were more than likely losing him to free agency at the end of the season anyway. The Bucks – never one to spend big in the offseason – just weren’t prepared to match the lucrative offers Knight is about to receive in free agency.

Instead they get the reigning Rookie of the year (Carter-Williams) on a cheap, team-friendly contract, and have him locked away for two more years. And you never know, either Miles Plumlee or Tyler Ennis – maybe even both – could yet turn into solid players.

I like what’s brewing in Milwaukee. They have a nice young roster with a great young coach in Jason Kidd to steer them in the right direction. It’s easy to see the path they’re headed down, while in Phoenix and Philadelphia it’s a little murkier.

Sam Hinkie’s gambles might yet pay off, turning the Sixers into a perennial powerhouse but that could be years away. How much more tanking can Philly fans put up with?

While in Phoenix they could potentially re-sign Knight and still have money left over to add another piece in free agency. They’ll also have a shot at landing a decent player in this year’s draft, but will they rue trading away that valuable draft pick?

A month on and it’s still hard determining an outright winner in this trade. We probably won’t really know for sure until we see what happens with the Laker pick.

But at this point in time I know which cities fan-base I’d rather be in, and it doesn’t start with a P.