Las Vegas — An interesting question popped up after last month’s mega trade Dejounte Murray When Rudy Gobert — How about so many first round picks being dealt with?
The number of picks sent in both transactions was certainly stunning. So was the reality that most of them were defenseless.If the first round pick is a valuable item and the protection is sparred like in the MCU movie rankings, why is it? Hawks When Timberwolves Did they give up as they were selling dressers to Deborah Vance on their garden sale? I also had one interesting question. Has the value of the first round pick changed throughout the league this offseason?
Of course, the answer is complicated. However, discussions with league sources reveal answers that may point to both the league’s fast-growing economics and how star player acquisition has changed over the last 50 years or so.
At first, it’s important to note that the boffo pick package is not new. The Lakers Obtained by sending the rights to four first round picks (three picks, one of which is unprotected, and a swap) Anthony Davis.. The Hair clippers Submitted 5 first round choices (either by swap or unprotected choice) and rights to 2 choices heat Pick for Paul George.. The Bucks 5 drafts including 2 unprotected picks and 2 swaps Pelican For Jrue Holiday.. The Net Sent 4 swaps and 3 firsts to rocket For James Harden, and Houston eventually got another first as part of a four-team deal.
All of these transactions are mutually constructed, increasing the number of draft assets handled. They also included really good young players in each deal — Brandon Ingram, Lonzo Ball, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jarrett Allen, Caris LeVert — To make them work.
The transactions between Murray and Gobert were different. These early trades could be seen as the last move of the title candidate, but these were the escalations of a young team quitting play-in tournaments. And picks were the only important way to guide those players to a new franchise. The Spurs make their first unprotected landing Exchanged rights from Hawks to 2026 picks in 2025 and 2027, protecting the top 16 Hornets First in 2023. jazz We won the first three unprotected, pick swaps, the top five protected picks in 2029, and the 22nd pick just selected in the 2022 draft.
Murray and Gobert are all-stars, but they are not considered impact players of the same caliber as Davis, George, and Harden. This is why these transactions are so popular. If those deals seem to have deprived the pick of the first round, that may not be true.
There is no consensus, but one team executive pointed out that the picks in the first round could actually be more valuable. Now it’s becoming more and more rare to see a full-fledged star hit a free agency. Instead of giving up the guaranteed $ 50 million or more, as in the scenario when Zach LaVine resigned in Chicago, it’s too profitable for the star to continue to resign with the team and make money. Those who do so are an exception, according to team executives.
After 2019 Kyrie Irving When Kevin Durant Join the net and Kawhi Leonard The only star who changed the team, who signed with the Clippers, did so by trading. It’s a single prime, three free agent cycles when multiple All-Stars sign contracts elsewhere (DeMar DeRozan To Bulls 2021) *. From 2016 to 2019, nine multiple Prime All-Stars used free agents to change teams through direct signing or sign-and-trade.
* Kyle Lowry changed teams in 2021, but it’s hard to say that 35-year-old Laurie was the prime minister.
The team is no longer accumulating cap space because the true star has not reached the free agent. The only teams that have cap space these days are bad teams — the five teams with the most cap space in 2022 all had top 11 picks. Of the top six teams in the 2021 cap space, only two were in the top six seeds at the meeting. High-level free agencies have already been closed in certain markets, but there is no better way to become a top player than at the end of the great player movement of the last decade.
Free agencies are not completely closed — the next CBA may explain this in a way — but for now, the best way to get a star is through trading, and a star in trading. You have to make a lot of choices to win.
Other executives believe that there is little change and each move may live in a silo in its own particular situation. The Hawks had windows to increase their competitiveness. Trae Young Started his second contract. Who is a wolf already has a new owner, a new president of basketball operations, and two young franchise pillars. They provide unique pressure and incentives for high-risk movements.
Each previous transaction was a precedent setting, which caused an escalation of the number of picks needed to complete the transaction.Time tells you what the return is for Donovan Mitchell And Kevin Durant will be if either is traded. However, Gobert’s trading is very expensive for Timberwolves, and it’s hard to know how Nets can find a trading that improves its returns in this new paradigm.
“That hasn’t changed much,” said a playoff team executive about the change in the value of the picks in the first round. “But it’s changing.”
Draft topics are players they take in other ways, even if their executives need a first round pick to bring young players in cheap contracts where competitors can exceed their salaries. He said it was more valuable to him as a trade asset than. However, the 2017 collective bargaining agreement helped to squeeze some of its limits by linking newcomer-scale contracts to salary caps. However, if you have multiple maximum contract players, the need for this type of player increases.
Western Conference executives have benefited from the idea that a large pick package is a necessary tool for extracting star players, but the Hawks-Wolf deal could play many regular season games. I also saw it as a spending on high players. It helps to win many games and acts as a backstop to a sort of collapse that leads to giving up high draft picks. Murray has played 89.3 percent of Spurs games in the last three seasons. Gobert was playing 90.7% of regular jazz season games at the time.
Such deals are worthwhile, executives said, if such deals take your franchise to new heights, even if it’s not a championship, as before or for a long time, like 60 wins. It may not have been reached. Still, he added that the deal should be made after a long discussion with the team owner.
“This can make it look really silly after three years,” he said. “So you should keep the prize in mind.”
And one
• Get NBA Recently, it has come to mind for Commissioner Adam Silver that players, especially stars, play more often. He states that this will be the topic of conversation in future CBA talks. He definitely wants to see the stars play more often, but Silver has tied it to the NBA’s media rights deal, offering media companies a product worth paying for.
This week he had an interesting wrinkle in his thoughts on load management and threw the incentives he played in the game into the fight as being able to discuss it with the NBPA.
“There may be some additional incentives we can come up with,” Silver said after the league’s board meeting was held on Tuesday. “This goes a bit to your question about streaming, I’m all in favor of a guaranteed contract, but it’s your typical guaranteed contract plus some incremental money played games It may be based on the number and results of those games. That is, most industries work this way, even among high-paying executives, if there is a financial incentive for performance. Take into account what a modern NBA looks like, and take into account everything you have to look at when sitting. “
• Recently, when the NBA reduced the amount of money it received from this season’s salary, NBA players were welcomed by the surprise. The league can periodically withdraw 10% of each player’s salary into escrow and redistribute it later if the revenue allocated to the player through the CBA is insufficient. That number increased during the COVID season and was set at 15% this season. The league expects basketball revenue to continue to be hit by the pandemic. However, according to league sources, earnings were higher than expected and players removed only 7.5% of checks this season.
(Photo of Rudy Gobert and Dejounte Murray: Scott Wachter-USA Today)
