NBA Draft Trade Rumors Are HEATING UP...

whenever the NBA draft comes around

naturally everybody's focused on the

draft they're focused on the prospects

where is each guy going to go what is

his team going to do but this year in

particular for a lot of different

reasons a lot of the focus is actually

on some really interesting trade rumors

that are going around right now let's

start off by talking about the Houston

Rockets it seemed that in many ways is

at a Crossroads they've now moved on to

maudoku they have their new head coach

in they have some Talent on the roster

certainly Jalen green Jabari Smith

shangoon tari Eason like there's a lot

of stuff to like in Houston but we've

never really seen it come together

granted it's only really been two years

at this rebuild but they need to start

moving in some kind of a positive

direction and they expected to be

picking in the top three potentially

with the first overall pick in this

draft and through some bad Lottery luck

they are now picking fourth overall

which is really not where you want to be

in this class and that gives them two

options one they can look to trade up

I've seen a lot of trade-off rumors with

the Rockets trying to go up and get

either random Miller or scoot Henderson

or you can trade this pick elsewhere in

exchange for a veteran to really jump

start what you have there of course

there's some James Harden in the off

season if they are able to bring in

James Harden as a free agent that's

going to accelerate things even further

and I think they'd be even more inclined

to look at trading this pick for a

veteran but they're going to have to do

the draft first and then worry about

free agency later and they've been

connected to a lot of different guys

some of that I think is going to

constantly be rumored all the time as

someone like Goji and Adobe anytime

there's a Wing that can guard and can

shoot and can give you a little bit of

other stuff that player is going to be

valuable we don't exactly know what the

direction is for Toronto right now I

think OG is someone that's going to

continue to be available for them and

ordinarily I would expect a team that is

in the situation Houston's in to slow

play this a little bit but this is not

an ordinary situation they might get

James Harden they just got emeudoka I

would expect them to try and make a

pretty significant leap here even if you

could pretty easily argue that they're

certainly not ready for that and or that

adding Hardin in the first place is a

bad idea and obviously regardless of who

they're targeting the goal is to upgrade

in terms of talent the goal is to try

and Elevate this team push them in a

positive direction to really get some

good momentum going also though they

don't have full control over their 2024

first round pick which is a dangerous

place to be if you're a Houston team

that sometimes intentionally sometimes

not has not been very good over the last

couple of seasons and if you are giving

away for example the fifth or the sixth

pick in the draft next year to Oklahoma

City as a result of a trade that

happened years ago where you swapped

Russell Westbrook and Chris Paul that's

obviously a big concern it is top four

protected so if they're truly really

really bad they will keep their pick

next year they owe that pick top 24

protected to Oklahoma City or excuse me

top four protected to Oklahoma City in

2024 but as we saw this year the lottery

luck is not necessarily something you

want to be counting on in terms of how

you're going to continue to build your

roster and the rockets trading away

number four overall or trading up into

the top three is something you're going

to continue to see rumors about speaking

of teams that got bad Lottery luck the

Detroit Pistons at number five fell as

far as they could have and unfortunately

for them that puts them in a similar

situation to where Houston is however

there there's a little bit more optimism

there maybe with Detroit because yes

they were really bad last year but Kate

barely played they would have been

better had Kate played more games

they've got some Talent there with

Jayden Ivy and Kaden a lot of other

pieces you know guys that we're not

really sure exactly how they fit

together specifically in the front Court

they've got a lot of Highly drafted

players in the front Court not a ton in

terms of guys you're excited about on

the wing there's going to be some

weirdness there with Detroit and again I

would look at them as a team similar to

Houston where if they don't love their

options with the fifth overall pick they

could be looking again to trade that

fifth overall pick in exchange for

someone like OG and Adobe things like

that's going to continue to come up guys

that are going to help them win and

Elevate this roster we're starting to

see teams move away from this constant

tanking stage and really try and be

competitive especially as we've seen the

success of some of the teams that were

in the playing tournament this year in

the postseason earning a play in spot I

think is going to be a true goal both

Houston and Detroit this year and that

could be as a result of trading away the

fifth overall pick not necessarily for a

huge star player they feel like they

have their pairing of the future there

with Jaden Ivy and Kate Cunningham more

so about a complimentary option again

we're thinking about OG we're talking

about some of those wings around the

league maybe you can move one or two of

those other front core pieces around as

well to really try and solidify this

roster into one that truly makes sense

next up now is a really really fun one

the Orlando Magic have the sixth and the

11th picks in this class and I I really

don't see the benefit for them of adding

two more lottery picks to a roster

that's already so young that already has

a ton of talent and already has a lot of

similarly talented players that you're

gonna find at both six as well as 11.

it's clear who the foundation of this

team is right it's Franz Wagner it's

Paulo maybe some window quarter in there

maybe some Marco fultz in there they've

got some pieces that you really really

like moving forward and I think that you

could talk yourselves into this idea

that when they were healthy last year

they were a play in team because they

were like when they had all their guys

the beginning of the year was really

rough for them because of all the injury

issues now they're getting a lot of

those guys back they started to get some

of those guys back towards the end of

the season and packaging together Picks

6 and 11 specifically in an office

season in which some teams might be

looking to cut some money because of

salary cap issues the new CBA coming up

making it more and more difficult to

carry a ton of salary not a lot of teams

around the league having a ton of salary

cap space to be able to dump that stuff

into Orlando having these two picks

could allow them to go out and get again

not necessarily A Star level player

because I don't think 6 and 11 in this

particular draft are super super

valuable I do think they can go out and

get someone that really helps them

around Palo around France and again

continues to elevate their roster maybe

they don't trade both maybe it's just 11

maybe they put 11 and 6 together and go

into the top three the options for

Orlando are are pretty Limitless and

something that's really really exciting

for a roster that I personally really

like I also want to talk a course about

the San Antonio Spurs the story of the

draft they're going to get Victor

winanyama first overall but we're also

getting rumors about them trading away

Devin visell or some other pieces on

their roster trying to get an extra

first round pick in this draft

reportedly to add a point guard to the

roster and the reason that's weird to me

is because San Antonio has a ton of cap

space and if they really want to quote

unquote solve the point guard issue they

could just go out and do that in free

agency there are veterans that you can

bring in if that's truly what you want

alongside women I'm alongside some of

the other pieces you're on the roster

which I think does make sense if that's

truly what you want to do then just do

it in free agency what do we do in

trading away future first or trading

away you know future pieces in exchange

for a first round pick at the end of

this draft just keep dabbing this out

just keep all these pieces and go out

and solve your point guard issues in

free agency and that to me is a really

interesting team this off season because

you have one of two options like do they

want to slow play it with women Yama

make sure that he gets fully acclimated

to the NBA game with the understanding

that there's no real concern that he's

going to ask out and want to try and

leave you have a ton of Team control

over this guy for the next couple of

seasons and continue to just build

gradually over time that's an option

that they have they have enough Talent

there where they're at least going to

look halfway competent or are they going

to try and accelerate this because they

think that women Yama is going to be

unbelievable immediately if he's that

good straight away and you add him to

the fact they have Kelton Johnson dead

in the cell whoever else they add in

free agency then maybe going out and

having a big free agency spending spree

makes sense specifically when you

consider the timeline of Greg Popovich

there as head coach as well all of these

are Big considerations I would caution

against going out and getting a ton of

free agents this off season because that

could limit what you can do in terms of

you know the entirety of the Victor

woman Yama era quote unquote we don't

want to be in a situation where you

don't have assets you don't have free

agents you know cap space and suddenly

you're kind of in the middle not that

great don't have a ton of upward

trajectory you kind of want to wait and

see that's what I personally would do as

relates specifically to this draft I

certainly would not recommend trading

away guys for a late first round pick in

this draft even if you do want to you

know kind of reset things on the rookie

scale and things like that and save some

money I guess that makes sense but

overall I wouldn't do it but point being

like this is just a few of a lot of

different rumors I could have talked

about leading up to this draft I think

it's going to be a theme of this draft

with the new CBA with the way that the

rules are changing with the way some of

these teams are going to be looking to

dump dump some salary dump some

contracts and the way that a couple of

these teams have been at the bottom of

the league for years and are going to be

looking to make a leap up I think I

think this draft in particular lends

itself really well to whether it be on

draft night or just prior to a ton of

movement and a ton of traits whether it

be within the draft up and down or for

some other players around the league and

I can't wait to see what happens