Rockets acquire Suns picks, return Nets picks to Brooklyn

I guess the relegation rule is ok but everything else is bad. It's actually easier to tank now and you can tank for a longer time.

For instance, the Rockets could get into this flattened lottery just by trading the vets for picks and keep all their young guys with a gleague equivalent bench. The rockets org probably won't have the balls to do it but someone will.

The consequence of tanking used to be that your team had to really suck. Now, you can more easily manipulate lineups/minutes etc. and still horde young talent until you find a star.

I'm also curious to see how these extra stipulations affect traded picks. The intent was to penalize the tankers not the team that traded with them.

 

Just depends on Brooklyn's offseason.

Again, let's also remember 2027 is considered a weak draft class. So, I might weight improvements in 2029 more heavily.

 

Is that solely for the 1st pick or the weighted average? Tankathon has the lotto odds with weighted average for the current rules, but I couldn't see anything for the new proposed system.

2026 NBA Draft Lottery Odds | Tankathon

 

Solely for the first pick. I haven't seen any info released yet about the other picks.

 

How come you are still insisting on no 2? You keep saying this when no 2 has been debunked numerous times. You are like a flat earther keep insisting on something thats wrong.

Nets wouldnt be tanking if they didnt have their pick.
https://www.basketball-reference.com/contracts/BRK.html

Do you see their salary? They have no big contract beyond Michael Porter Jr. They only got MPJ because they were tanking. If they werent tanking they would have all that capspace to sign reinforcements. They also had 5 picks in the draft which they all used because they are tanking. If they werent tanking they would trade some of those picks for vet help. Lots of free agents in the offseason would help them. James Harden, NAW, Quentin Grimes, Dennis Schroeder etc They dont need to be world beaters they just need not to suck.

Stone made the right move doing the Nets trade as it turned 2 assets into 4, especially important because we used 1 asset in the KD trade. If we didnt do the Nets trade we would be left with a low 2026 pick in the teens and nothing else.

 

okay, thanks for working that out. I guess the reality is that none of our picks post-trade looked all that great except for the 2027 Brooklyn pick. As others have said, the original sin was trading out of the 2026 draft in the first place.

 

I don't think they would have been able to get into the teens even if trying their best to win--there just weren't enough good free agents who were going to sign in Brooklyn for a reasonable price, and they lacked strong trade assets outside of Bridges. I think they would probably be in the 8-12 range for lotto odds, which is pretty valuable in a draft class this strong, and does also carry (even under the current system) a real chance at getting into the top 4.

Before the new lottery system was announced I thought the trade was turning out pretty bad due to Phoenix being better than expected and Dallas landing Flagg. A real, albeit fairly low, chance at a top 4 lotto pick in a phenomenal draft class would probably be worth all those other picks in aggregate.

Now though I think it looks like it at least has a strong chance to pan out. We'll see!

 

getting out of the 26 draft was nuts. Also, time has taught us anytime you have to do all that talking to defend your trade, you know its a bad trade.

However, it pains me to say because I dont like this leadership, we wont be able to say conclusively this was bad. As some of the Stone only Fans are saying, without this there is no KD. And at that moment in time we had to try.

So, better to look forward if you ask me.

 

Now I'm wondering if we should trade KD and do a soft rebuild so that we would have lottery odds for our own pick, BKN (via swap), or PHX. These new odds do change some things.

 

I was onboard with that before this was announced--now I think it's a no-brainer in our current situation. Take a step back, be a scrappy .500 team for a couple of years, hope some better star kicks loose for us to trade for, and if not hope we get some lotto luck.

But I doubt the Fertittas would agree.

 

Watch us miss out on the next MJ because of this lmao

 

Are we drafting Jalen again? Asking for Apachewarrior.

 

Not very happy about giving the NETS their 2026 pick back when they were rebuilding regardless with the Knicks offering a kings ransom for Bridges.

 

We can still trade KD this offseason to get into the 2026 draft

 

They have to eventually get rid of KD any other way, he is nearing 38 years of age and injuries pop up at inopportune times.....

This romantic idea of KD and 80%FVV are conquering the league with the young guys, just a romantic idea.

The Bulls are actually rebuilding their coaching staff + in the midst of rebuilding their GM staff.

 

the Nets couldn't refuse the Bridges trade, 4 unprotected FRP+1 protected FRP+1 unprotected FRP swap+1 SRP.
how can they refuse that massive haul for their future, just to prevent the other team (Rockets) to get better picks.
even with Bridges they would still be a lottery team.
And whichever FA they would have signed that summer couldn't replace Bridges. and they wouldn't give a max contract to James Harden to "try to win", NAW can't replace Bridges, and you think Grimes/Schroeder can make them a playoff team? c'mon

as for using 1 pick in the KD trade, you can always trade another future pick for an equivalent pick to use now.

Stone didn't turned 2 assets into 4, a "swap" means you're sending out a pick too. He traded 4 FRPs (25' OKC/25'Bro./26'Bro./27'Hou) for 4 FRPs (25'Pho./27'Pho./29'Pho./29'Dal.), in hoping the three Pho. picks can net us KD and Booker.

which 4 picks(together) are more valuable, 25'OKC+25'Bro.+26'Bro.+27'Hou V.S 25'Pho.+27'Pho.+29'Pho.+29'Dal., imo is yet to known

 

Edit: read it wrong

 

Could be. If we do, I'm not expecting a high pick though. Here is a mock draft going by teams' current lottery odds, what is the highest pick that seems realistic to you?

 

I would bet all 4 of those picks coming will be 19 or higher. Getting some nice role players. Perhaps one of them a top 5 pick with another chance of a great player. Those young role players can give you flexibility to trade current players for a better fit with Sheppard and Amen (the 2 players I don’t think will be traded away)

 

The Bridges trade had nothing to do with them still having a boatload of $$ to bring in help instead of tanking. They are one of the worst teams because they chose to be. They could have been a middling team in the East, at worst, if they chose to be.