I think the Suns were one of the few teams that had all their picks and had two borderline all-star players that doubled as young prospects in Mikal and Ayton, but either the suns weren’t willing to part with all that or that still wasn’t enough for Brooklyn.

Then you had the Ben Simmons problem where teams with young guys on designated max deals couldn’t even offer them to Brooklyn because they had Simmons. That made guys like Booker, Mitchell, and Adebayo ineligible to be acquired by Brooklyn.

GS was probably honestly the best bet to actually meet the asking price. They could send Wiggins(all-star) multiple young guys(Wiseman, Kuminga, Poole, Moody, etc.) and picks.

New Orleans probably could have as well as they had Ingram and lots of picks.