Yes. Reports from both sides said we dangled both Favors (expiring) and Burks (one more year) but they were holding out for a first rounder. It was widely known around the entire league that he was available for a first rounder. They ended up taking back some really bad salary to get that pick.
The problem was that the league saw what Donovan and Kuzma did as mid-to-late first rounders and everyone got penis-brain about first rounders. Also, anyone looking at it would have known Rudy was coming back and there was no tank. Had we offered up a protected pick, that should have nabbed him, too, before Cousins went down.
DL addressed deadline issues around the deadline on The Big Show. He beat around the bush on the specifics, but indicated he doesn’t know if not moving that pick was or wasn’t the right decision, and that time would tell.
The problem is that we try to make these decisions look clear and black and white and do not acknowledge uncertainty in many decisions. There are probably a lot of things DL is certain about, but there are plenty that we’re not. They’ve admitted to uncertainty with how the roster was constructed but it happened to pay off.
My take (my opinion only) is that DL wanted Mirotic but, surveying the landscape, didn’t think Chicago had other options and thought he could have his cake and eat it by waiting it out and picking him up with second rounders. The narrative kept getting pushed out there that there’s “no way” the Jazz will trade their pick for him. Now whether they would have or not, they made that statement public (gambling, I presume, on the fact that nobody would give up a first). Even if DL would have hypothetically given up the pick, the corner we were in made that impossible.
My bottom line on this: DL wanted Mirotic but also wanted to get him while also keeping our pick. Did DL want him enough to obtain him when he was easily obtainable? The answer to that is clearly no. Would he have done it differently in hindsight? I have no idea.