With NBA Trades Declining, or simply including player for player, have the Philadelphia 76ers seen the last of the NBA trade swaps?
Insurance is a product which, like beauty, has a value which springs from the eye of a beholder. Some value the assurance it gives, while others see it as a needless expense, an obligation which is one more outlay, with little to no reason to do so.
It’s too much to bother with.
So too are the values inherent in an NBA draft swap. In the 2016 NBA draft, the Philadelphia 76ers benefited from two such NBA draft “insurance policies”. The team’s own lottery pick was bolstered by the ability to negotiate a draft swap with the Sacramento Kings. Of course, that right was not exercised due to the Philadelphia 76ers landing the top pick of the NBA draft:
Which prompted this response:
.@SacramentoKings New phone who dis
— Philadelphia 76ers (@sixers) May 18, 2016
But the team had also negotiated a second draft swap. the rights to swap either the first round pick from the Miami Heat (24) or the Oklahoma City Thunder (26) with that of the Golden State Warriors (30).
Once more, no swap occurred, but the latter first round picks were protected, in their own right, from losing value of falling to the 30th selection of round one. It was that embracing of what might go wrong which made general manager Sam Hinkie so good at planning for contingencies. Nobody could expect, with relative certainty, that the 2015-2016 version of the Golden State Warriors would be such a good team.
In fact, Hinkie was actually betting against them.
Next: Hinkie Legacy