Rockets acquire Suns picks, return Nets picks to Brooklyn

They do not own any piece of their 2026 pick.

Washington has 1-8 protection on their pick for going to NYK. If Washington keeps their pick from NY, Washington gets the better of Washington 1-8 and Phoenix.

If Washington doesn't get the Phoenix pick, the two best of Pho (this is Washington if Washington takes Phoenix), Mem, and Orl go to Mem, with the least going to Charlotte.

So the Phoenix pick can go to either Washington, Memphis, or Charlotte.

 

You’re right. Fanspo wasn’t correct on some of the picks details.

 

welllllll....... lol

 

This is the real blunder that setup all the rest of the blunders. You cannot convince me otherwise.

 

absolutely called it brother

 

Consider that we’ve missed out on two franchise reset opportunities:

1). The KD trade prevented us from the opportunity of acquiring the 2026 Pels pick for #10 in 2025

2). The 2026 Brooklyn pick Stone foolishly traded back to them

#1 could not have been foreseen, but #2 feels like a self imposed d#ck punch.

 

I mean even last year #10 has plenty of guys that would have helped this year.

Carter Bryant, Cedric Coward, Derik Queen.. Hell even Maluach could have played the Capela role easily this season.

 

i think it’s safe to say we should have kept Brooklyn’s 2026 pick. The value of our future picks are now flat, relative to most of the league. This is going to make it even harder to trade into the 2026 draft.

 

I think it's a bad way to handle the draft in general, because it rewards too much the front offices that are the least competent and least focused on long-term success, and creates even more punishment for fans of perpetual cellar-dwellers who really deserve a break once in awhile.

It's good for us over the next few seasons though because we have a number of picks from what should be mid teams coming up. Phoenix is probably pretty locked in on being somewhat competitive but middle of the pack for awhile given their lack of strong trade assets and all the money they have tied up in Booker and Green. I doubt Dallas is truly bad in 2029 with Flagg at the helm, but they may not yet be at full contender status, so it's a real possibility they're a play-in or late lotto team at that time. It may hurt next year's Brooklyn pick though, but maybe not, depends on how their offseason goes. (It's a weak draft class anyway.)

 

I actually see it the opposite way, it makes Stone's trade look a little better. There was a pretty low chance of those Phoenix picks being more than mid-first rounders before; it would have required them having a very snakebit year with injuries. Now there's a real possibility they end up at or near the top of the draft, even if they're reasonably healthy.

 

the idea was that Brooklyn would still be bad in 2027, and at the time, that the Suns would also be bad. Now those odds are flat. The idea was that at least one of the suns or Dallas would be bad in 2029. Now those odds are flat. Now all of our future picks have a better chance to be mid, than high lotto picks. Overall it’s not a good thing when u expected to have a couple picks that had a really good chance of being high lotto. It certainly hurts the Brooklyn pick in 2027.

Stone traded away the sure thing in 2026. As time has gone the return on those picks has become less attractive. And now the nba has capped any upside.

 

Brooklyn's 3rd worst record makes it more of a coin flip. There's a 59.8% chance it falls between 4-7, a 47.8% chance it falls between 5-7. And there's no telling where Brooklyn's record would be if they weren't able to tank. Next year, when they can't tank because of the swap with us we'll see if they actually try to win games.

The proposed lottery changes would have actually helped us out based on this year's results. Because Phoenix lost the 7-8 play in game we would have at least a lotto ball whereas under the current rules we'd get nothing. And Dallas in the #8 spot would get more lotto balls than Washington, Indy, or Brooklyn. Now that Dallas has Flagg I doubt they bottom out going forward. We need to hope they fall in the 4-10 spot in 2029.

 

Of course after dallas gets their guy and wemby goes to the spurs. now change it. thanks. thanks, nba. you dirty helmets.

 

hurts the 2027 Brooklyn pick relative to what we thought before the change, no? What am I missing?

 

I know that was the idea, but this season has proven that relying on Phoenix being bad was a mistake in the first place. They're likely to just re-sign Dillon using his bird rights and keep going with the same core three, unless Booker demands a trade, while making smaller tweaks around their periphery. Their ownership does not like to build through the draft.

I see Phoenix and Dallas as highly likely to be middle of the pack teams in or around the play-in, which means we may gain lotto balls we wouldn't have had. Brooklyn, again... harder to say. I agree missing out on this draft class was really bad. Next season, they may still be bad and we may lose some lotto balls. However, the words "historically weak" are being lofted about the 2027 draft class, so I don't know if trying to get a #1 option was ever going to be a great plan out of that class anyway.

The biggest knock on the trade was ending up outside one of the best draft classes in recent memory, with at least a chance (even if they didn't tank as hard) at a top 4 pick. That's still the case. But, at least now we should have both a higher quantity of picks and a better chance at them hitting near the top of the draft in exchange. I don't know which is better... it will depend on luck.

 

Actually, I think it helps it. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong.

 

so very slight improvement to Suns 2027 odds and likely significant hit to Brooklyn 2027 odds

Very Slight improvement to 2029 pick odds for Dallas and Suns.

is that fair?

 

It's hard to tell IMO. Brooklyn tanked super hard this year which was completely understandable considering the strength of the class and still ended up 3rd worst in the league. The year prior they were 7th worst in the league. The year prior to that they were the 9th worst in the league.

In the proposed 3-2-1 system, the worst three records get 2 lotto balls each, 4th through 10th get 3 balls each, 9-10 play in spots get 2 balls each, and loser of 7-8 play in gets 1 ball. We'd want them to fall in the 4-10 range to have the best shot at #1 which seems pretty realistic, but without lotto odds in front of me I can't tell the expected value of each position. Under the current system the three worst records all have equal 14% chance of getting the #1 pick, but drastically different odds of getting #5-7.

 

It looks like the '27 Brooklyn pick odds will be worse for us if they have one of the five worst records in the league and better for us if they have the 7th worst record or better. If Brooklyn has the sixth worst record in the league, the odds would essentially be unchanged.