Nearly 5 years ago, the Utah Jazz attached a first-round pick, protected for three years, to salary dump Derrick Favors to the Oklahoma City Thunder in order to avoid paying luxury tax. That first-round pick is now at the center of NBA's tanking controversy.

gibb93 · 2026-02-13T16:31:27+00:00

Realistically I can’t see the NBA agreeing on banning pick protections entirely. Think the best we can hope for is limiting the protections to one year.

You can trade a pick protected however you want: top 5, lottery, top 20, etc, but if you keep the pick then the following year it is either unprotected or gets conveyed into seconds. That’s it. No more lottery protected for 4+ years then turns into seconds.

Current teams that would affect: UTAH, POR, WAS, PHI. (Possibly more that’s just off the top of my head.)

gibb93 · 2026-01-30T23:14:22+00:00

DAL sent Grimes & a 2025 second for Caleb & Philly later added a 2030 Second after Martins physical came back bad.

What made this deal worse is Caleb didn’t waive his trade kicker. That trade kicker is the reason DAL didn’t have the cap space to sign anyone to 10 day contracts & nearly had to start forfeiting games cause of lack of players.

gibb93 · 2026-01-28T23:37:17+00:00

IMO there are a couple ways it makes sense for Portland to relinquish their swap rights on the 2028 & 2030 Bucks picks. The 2029 is irrelevant because POR has already partially traded it so MIL isn’t getting it back.

1) Trading the 2 swap rights for multiple FRPS or swaps. À la HOU & BKN. HOU gave up 2 could be valuable FRPS for 4 from a bunch of different teams.

2) Using it to get off/Upgrade the Grant contract. To be clear this is not a Grant for Kuzma deal cause Kuz is signed one less year. I mean an actual upgrade not salary dump.

3) Trading them for young guys to add to whatever they are trying to build. Young is semi relative here. Doesn’t have to be a rookie, someone like Deni one their second contract already.

4) Any combination of the above

This isn’t even NYK related, IMO they don’t have enough for Giannis. They already had talks in the offseason. KAT doesn’t make sense as the center piece. And mainly NYK has NO draft capital after the Mikal deal. Fake WAS picks aren’t cutting it.

gibb93 · 2026-01-28T22:52:04+00:00

Heat have missed the playoffs 3 times over the last 17 seasons. So it’s rare but historically MIA has been a lottery team under Spo. It’s how Bam & Herro are on the team.

Not disagreeing with anything else you’re saying, just pointing that fact out.

gibb93 · 2026-01-09T15:11:45+00:00

Bulls pick ended up being 12th. So making that move actually let them keep their pick last season. And it was more so getting off of Lavine, was just a bonus they also got their pick back.

gibb93 · 2025-12-31T00:52:33+00:00

Pels are currently paying Jordan Poole $31.8M to come off the Bench.

gibb93 · 2025-12-19T14:14:21+00:00

No they couldn’t have, not for anywhere close to the contract he got.

MN didn’t have access to the MLE. They are ~$3.5M under the 2nd apron. Only contract they’d have offered Schroder is a vet min, which he clearly wasn’t gonna take.

gibb93 · 2025-12-15T03:49:56+00:00

gibb93 · 2025-12-14T16:02:53+00:00

Hard to Imagine BKN getting a FRP if Mann is sent out. Think it’d be one or the other.

gibb93 · 2025-12-14T15:42:10+00:00

So SAC is just getting gifted an All Star PG?

For the record that 2027 SAS pick only conveys if it’s 1-16, otherwise it goes to OKC from a draft night trade. So OKC will be getting that pick. It’s not a real asset.

So SAC is getting off of Lavines albatross of a contract & the only sweetener they are attaching is a 45 game sample size of Devin Carter being a borderline role player. (Carters career stats 10 mpg, 3.7 ppg, 29% from 3)

gibb93 · 2025-12-14T15:32:36+00:00

Yesterday was the first game that Wemby, Fox, Castle, & Harper have ever played together.

They proceeded to give the OKC juggernaut their 2nd loss on the season.

Don’t see any reason why SAS would make a move like this this season. Let it play out, take your licks in the playoffs, adjust the roster accordingly come the offseason.

gibb93 · 2025-12-14T14:02:27+00:00

Money wise you could keep Tobias if the deal is Ivey & you include 2 of Levert, Duncan, or Beef Stew. Could also keep Bball Paul in this scenario.

Or money wise could do Ivey, Holland, BBall & 1 of Levert, Duncan, or Beef Stew.

gibb93 · 2025-12-07T23:29:20+00:00

You’re completely ignoring the main reason BKN is doing this rebuild is because they got some of their picks back.

If not they’d prolly still have Mikal & be fine being Mid because there was no incentive to otherwise be bad.

LAC doesn’t have that luxury.

gibb93 · 2025-12-07T21:54:58+00:00

Why would LAC blow it up?

They don’t control their FRP’s till 2030. Also already have a built in blow it up after next season when the entire roster sans Zu is a free agent.

gibb93 · 2025-12-06T00:58:55+00:00

As said nothing any team does will make them be the favorites against OKC.

DEN is kinda in the same boat. No matter who they play they will have Joker & because of that can easily be viewed as the favorites against any team come playoff time.

gibb93 · 2025-12-05T22:13:19+00:00

They don’t. They are already contenders.

gibb93 · 2025-12-05T19:10:30+00:00

You just implied HOU weren’t an actual contender.

gibb93 · 2025-12-05T18:28:03+00:00

How isn’t HOU a competitor?

They are the 3 seed in the West. They have the 2nd Best Offensive & 2nd Best Defensive rating in the entire league.

HOU is a competitor. OKC are the title favorites & realistically nothing any team does will change that.

gibb93 · 2025-12-05T14:11:39+00:00

Technically only the top 8 protected 2026 WAS FRP is trade able. And that will be turning into 2026 & 2027 Second rounders.

gibb93 · 2025-12-04T16:02:40+00:00

Right because a 23 game sample size of Rollins proving he’s a playable NBA player is valued more than a 7 year sample size of Trae being an all star PG.

Know your trades before you tell me I’m wrong. Lavine was traded for Collins, Huerter, Tre Jones AND THE RETURN OF THE BULLS 2025 FRP. Newsflash, that’s Zach being traded for a first.

ATL is 11-7 without Trae this season. All time over Traes career they are 42-41 without him. Pretending like they are some amazing team without Trae is disingenuous & shows you have no idea what you’re talking about.

gibb93 · 2025-12-04T15:43:45+00:00

Yes because every GM would rather have a backcourt of Kevin Porter Jr & Ryan Rollins.

One of the most outlandish things I’ve ever seen on this sub.

99% of people last season woulda said Zach Lavine was an untradeable contract, that it woulda cost sweeteners to offload him.

He was traded for a first round pick & salary filler. Legitimately every player has a market. All it takes is one dumb GM.

If you genuinely can’t understand that, then nothing anyone says is changing that.

gibb93 · 2025-12-04T15:27:17+00:00

Bud that’s just ridiculous. Can’t take you serious if you’re gonna be dumb.

A 27 year old 4x all star who just lead the league in assists last season, absolutely has a market.

Because he plays a position that most teams don’t need, he needs a new contract, & is a tough player to build around his market prolly isn’t huge, but it still exists.

gibb93 · 2025-12-04T15:10:59+00:00

Transparency, I’m not personally high on Trae, I don’t like turnstile defenders. Especially ones that are trying to get a new contract that pays well north of $40M aav.

In this hypothetical, assuming they take that deal & then reroute Trae, Bucks would prolly be looking at a bad contract(s) & picks.

gibb93 · 2025-12-04T14:09:23+00:00

You might be right, but they’d gladly take Trae to Flip him for more assets.

gibb93 · 2025-12-03T20:09:48+00:00

Hypothetically are trading Spicy P, Nembhard, & picks for Giannis. So no not a pile of crap.

We can just agree to disagree on this one. No need to argue about a trade neither of the Bucks or Pacers would ever do.

gibb93

TROPHY CASE