In a normal situation I'd agree with this but we aren't in a normal situation. We need to win a championship in the next 2 years and we lack the overall talent to do it. We don't have picks to trade away and we don't have the cap space to seriously upgrade even the end of bench players. If we don't get close to number one pick value out of Ayton either on the court or in trade, I don't see how we can raise the talent level to contender status.
I just don't see how when it matters, in the playoffs, he can play significant minutes. I think at this point we need to get whatever flexibility we can from him and move on.
I don't know if you mean use future picks/swaps to trade him, or if you mean we don't have anybody of his slotting we can replace him with.
To build our team, I do think we can be creative. We can buy picks. We can use exceptions. In a trade of Ayton, it's possible to get an expiring contract back. One which then, itself can be flipped for a player mid-season (or picks, which then can be kept or traded). We can be a part of three team trades. We have some Saric space to add to any trade.
I also think there's hope of getting some cheap deals too. But it's hard to tell how much pull we might have now that $arver isn't here. Ishbia might start to create that Colangelo-style effect. Great owner. Great weather. Book and Durant. That's a great selling point. We'll see how far this goes with our MLE.
Paul is also an expiring contract. So there's value there too.
We don't need a 3rd star. It would be great. But a couple of willing, consistent scorers/shot-creators would put us in a better place. Book and Durant willed the team down 0-2 without a starter-level PG, Ayton, or much of anyone else.
It's going to be interesting.
