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Exactly what I brought up earlier.Isn’t it unusual for drafted players to get traded weeks after they are picked? It’s kind of like a car...the minute the player gets picked the stock of that “pick” drops significantly. It’s almost like the idea of a “draft pick” gives you a feeling like said player can be the next superstar but when they get picked reality hits etc
Which begs the question: will we see a trade at the draft? I think so. If so, we basically giving up idea of signing a major superstar this summer. Not sure I ever seen free agency hit, player gets signed and then the team trades their top 5 pick first or second week of July, mid summer league (by then the player may be playing bad, lowering his stock)
Last player I recall is Wiggins but he was number 1 pick so he was super sought after
The other problem is if we trade for AD during/prior to the draft then we eliminate our ability to offer a max (we will be like 5M short). The only way to have 3 stars is to sign one first then trade for AD.
And like you mentioned, a trade would have to be at least agreed in principal before the draft so we can select whoever the pelicans want. If no agreement is in place then that pick loses value for the other team tremendously because we may select a player they have no interest in. So basically in this scenario we at least allow ourselves an opportunity to offer a max and even if that fails we end up with AD regardless a month after the draft. But I also wanna make sure the pelicans can’t balk once a trade is agreed to in principle. Overall either we
1) trade for AD before/during the draft and say **** FA and handing out a max
2) agree in principle to a trade for AD and select their player at 4. Go through FA and after whatever outcomes we ratify the AD trade in August.
3) don’t make any trade/don’t have any agreements in place. Select who we want at 4. Roll with the young guys. Hard to imagine a deal is agreed to after the draft since we would probably have selected someone different than who the pelicans would have.. what else could change in our offer after the draft??
2 gives us the option to at least try for a FA. And if we’re 100% trading for AD that’s the way to go about it. 1 would mean we know we ain’t getting anybody in free agency and not even gonna make an attempt. Nobody’s signing here for 5M less than max.