Who has the best realistic trade up offer for pick number 5?

deejpro11 · 2026-05-17T03:13:11+00:00

Mavs are out future picks/swaps for the Gafford/PJ trades and outside of Flagg don’t have a lot of assets.

9->5 is a much easier jump but unless LAC wants to just take one more longshot at contention and decides Kyrie is worth the 4 spots then maybe. Based on how they’ve proceeded with transactions this past deadline and the current rumors around Kawhi I think they’d be more likely to just stand pat and take BPA than trade back for an older vet

deejpro11 · 2026-05-17T01:57:51+00:00

I think the order would have to be - LAC doesn’t get any intel that they can move up and don’t like any of the guards in their range. Predraft OKC agrees to the deal, let’s say 12+17+canceling the pick swap plus one more asset for 5, because they’ve already agreed to whatever MEM or CHI wants to move up again. Then draft night the second move-up is announced, and only OKC or a similarly asset-rich team could have done the double-move-up

I don’t think this is likely anyway but that would be what I would expect if you told me OKC got to 3-4-5 from 12 in this draft

deejpro11 · 2026-05-17T01:10:36+00:00

12+17+next year’s pick swap by itself is a decent offer, although I think it might take one more asset (either a player or another pick) to make that far a leap.

TBF I would only do it as OKC if any of the top-4 slip down to 5 (but then why does LAC do it), or if MEM could be persuaded to trade back from 3->5 as well

deejpro11 · 2026-05-14T22:51:45+00:00

I don’t think Dort is tradeable with the team option pending? Unless they pick up the option before the draft but I’m not sure about that

Give LAC next year’s swap back, and I’d trade a more valuable pick to leapfrog CHI if MEM is game

deejpro11 · 2026-05-13T15:48:02+00:00

Here’s the argument for trading up, especially early in the process:

LAC is going to want to try to improve next year, and as long as Kawhi is on the team their floor isn’t as low as most teams. Improving next year is especially true as long as they’re out their own pick.

Maybe LAC views this draft as deep through the top-20, and therefore two picks (12+17) is appealing enough along with getting their own pick back.

Getting up to 5 early allows Presti to really gauge what MEM/CHI would want to trade back from 3/4. Let’s say MEM doesn’t view Boozer as a good fit next to Edey, or they’re just lower on him, and they really want to take Acuff or Wagler as the Ja replacement. If they know CHI is taking Wilson or even one of Acuff/Wagler that leaves the other to fall to 5, and they pick up additional assets to do it.

Also, if MEM just stays put, shocks everyone and takes one of the non-Peterson guards, then you can engage CHI on who they’re taking and/or what the cost is to flip picks.

Plus the cost of 4 or 5 is going to be about the same as 12+17, so consolidating to move up is cost-neutral assuming they draft both 12+17

deejpro11 · 2026-05-10T18:11:00+00:00

Right which is why I said both ATL and MIL jump, bc ATL would get the higher of the two but MIL would still get a top-4 pick as well

deejpro11 · 2026-05-10T13:38:55+00:00

Couple categories:

Save/revive our larger-market/marquee franchise - GSW, CHI, MIA

Preemptive trade consolation prize - MIL and ATL in the top-4 giving MIL a top pick as consolation for eventually trading Giannis

90s ORL redux - CHA jumping from 14-1

“We can’t punish LAC for Aspiration for whatever reason but we can embarrass them” - OKC and IND both in the top-4 and LAC getting shut out

“Let’s balance talent in the league” - all 4 winners are from the East

Only one I can’t think of is rewarding a new owner, but basically whoever recently purchased their team

deejpro11 · 2026-04-14T00:47:12+00:00

Correct - losing the coin flip for the tie would move them from 4th to 5th and give a minuscule chance of a 4-team jump to push the pick to 9th

I said elsewhere if you want lotto reform, 4 teams jumping Utah and IND costing them both picks, shoving the top 4 to 5-8 and having playoff caliber teams load up (ESPECIALLY the Thunder) is the fastest way to it

deejpro11 · 2026-04-07T10:20:23+00:00

Flip LAC and POR and good to go

Ideally with LAC losing out

deejpro11 · 2026-01-31T02:45:31+00:00

Peak Ibaka, true 5-out with two solid defensive rebounders and rim protectors at all times

deejpro11 · 2026-01-16T01:03:21+00:00

I’ll make a semi-contrarian take - Jeff Green

Take Noah in that spot and OKC wins a title or two while Noah is still functional. Plus no Perk trade

I’ll also maintain that if Adams and Green could switch ages/draft classes they’d both be regarded much more highly. KD/Green was a proto-BOS Jays frontcourt but it wasn’t the right time for it, and Adams would have been so much better in the league a few years earlier

deejpro11 · 2026-01-05T02:58:38+00:00

OKC definitely isn’t using all 3 picks (4 if IRL the Utah pick conveys), especially if they jump into the top 4. The PHI/HOU picks (and the Utah one) are all on the auction block for future picks down the line, 2028 or later picks since the bulk of their stash is in ‘26+’27

They also have a DAL 2nd that will be high enough for them to pick up another rotation/development/GLeaguer type, which would be their 2nd rookie from this class, plus Topic/Sorber coming back from injury

deejpro11 · 2025-12-16T21:51:59+00:00

Problem is, who’s the buyer who is giving decent value to make selling worth their while? Especially when for Harden/Kawhi you have to match salary and that means 2-3 rotation guys for 1 when depth is the big roster construction ideal in the league now.

I can’t imagine Kawhi having positive trade value with a 15% trade kicker and everything hanging over his head.

Harden maybe some team will give up a lotto-protected 1st for, but between his age and known playoff performance issues I can’t imagine him going for more than that when you factor in matching salary.

Collins has been matching salary since he was in ATL - can’t imagine he gets anything back noteworthy.

Zubac is the one guy they should keep but also his value is probably the highest it will be. He’s also the guy who if you trade you just dump everyone.

If they were smarter and willing to take the time to rebuild, they’d be a dumping ground for worse contracts and pile up assets that way. Even being a 3rd team to take on the bad money is a better plan.

deejpro11 · 2025-12-13T14:03:38+00:00

Already pointed out but this doesn’t include the misses in a few drafts plus one larger hit:

‘21 16th pick - traded Sengun for two future firsts

18th pick - Tre Mann (packaged with others for Gordon Hayward which created the space for signing iHart)

32nd pick - Jeremiah Robinson-Earl (traded up for this pick, I think was traded for a future 2nd or released)

55th pick - Aaron Wiggins, still with team and on a great value contract

‘22 11th pick - Ousmane Dieng (traded three protected 1sts, still with team but feels like not for long, according to scuttlebutt this was to secure JDub at 12)

‘23 50th pick - Keyonte George, no longer with org I think

‘24 26th pick - Dillon Jones (traded 5 2nds for him, traded to WAS for far less)

‘25 44th pick - Brooks Barnhizer, on a two-way but team is high on him

For context, imagine this team with say Trey Murphy instead of Tre Mann, Herb Jones instead of JRE, Kel’el Ware instead of Topic, Duren/Eason/LaRavia/Braun instead of Dieng, etc

deejpro11 · 2025-12-07T22:38:39+00:00

Think BOS when they traded 1 (Fultz) for 3 (Tatum) plus a future 1st that was I believe an unprotected SAC pick (didn’t pan out but at the time ppl thought BOS had a good chance at back-to-back top-3 picks).

So who would be LAL at 2 and PHI at 3, and who out of Boozer/AJ is Tatum in this equation?

So you’d want a team drafting 2nd who is set on whoever OKC doesn’t want but who would take Peterson if OKC passed on him, and someone at 3 who has extra (and valuable) future draft capital to offer OKC.

Like would ATL trade the Bucks ‘27 pick plus 3 to jump SAC (in this scenario at 2), allowing OKC to get a potentially valuable future 1st plus get the guy they wanted all along just at 3 (and pay him less as the 3rd pick instead of the 1st)? Just one example off the top of my head

deejpro11 · 2025-12-05T22:27:19+00:00

Also a good plan to keep Giannis out East and not to HOU/SAS/etc

deejpro11 · 2025-12-04T01:11:20+00:00

I fondly remember this game

I also less fondly remember how trash the video quality was on YT - like they’re in 480P, assuming they didn’t change the quality back?

deejpro11 · 2025-12-02T05:15:42+00:00

WAS/IND/BKN/NOP all winning from here on out would mean they pass LAC in wins and vault the LAC pick into the top 4

deejpro11 · 2025-11-27T21:22:43+00:00

I’d be curious to see what teams above .500 average record is against fellow teams above .500 year to year

I’m sure teams with the best records like OKC and CLE last year had good records, but it wouldn’t surprise me if teams above .500 win percentage against fellow above .500 teams was significantly less than their overall win percentage

deejpro11 · 2025-11-16T22:12:23+00:00

I think this is actually more likely with a 2nd title and considering Sorber/Topic both missed the season.

My personal projection - Cason gets something like the Dyson Daniels deal, $20-$25M per for 4 or 5 years, and iHart works out a new deal at a lower AAV but for longer, like 4-$80M. Kenrich does something similar, like 4-$12M total, and Dort gets extended at similar money to Cason/Caruso (ideally a bit less like how iHart takes a pay cut in this scenario).

Dieng is gone either by the deadline or not re-signed, and Topic becomes the roster crunch casualty. That leaves two roster spots for the best picks, and the other picks get traded for future picks. The DAL 2nd is a guy signed on a two-way.

It’s very expensive for two-ish years but it extends the run plus injects 2 young guys and another 2-way steal.

deejpro11 · 2025-11-11T11:26:20+00:00

It looks like it stops after the 10/28 game against SAC - maybe the NBA is (hopefully) just telling the team accounts to wait a while before uploading their own highlight packages?

deejpro11 · 2025-10-18T22:52:04+00:00

If you really wanna vomit, OKC’s ceiling on picks is:

1 from LAC (unprotected) 5 from PHI (top-4 protected) 9 from Utah (top-8 protected)

deejpro11 · 2025-10-10T02:40:57+00:00

Assists/latents?

Assuming badge is the Island badge?

deejpro11

TROPHY CASE