What If the Sixers Copied the Nets Rebuild Part 5
The Utah Jazz did this trade with the Golden State Warriors that involved the Jazz accepting $24 million in salary for two unprotected first round pick from the Warriors. The Sixers would need to outbid the Warriors in draft picks to convince the Jazz to take back enough salary to allow them to sign Smith and Mayo.
Trading first round picks would be more difficult for the Sixers than the Warriors, due to the Sixers owing the Maimi Heat a lottery protected first round pick for Moultrie and the Orlando Magic a lottery protected first round pick for Bynum. Making this trade with Jazz harder, is a rule that forbids NBA teams from trading their first round pick two years in a row.
Luckily, the Nets’ rebuilding blueprint shows that a team can trade an unprotected draft pick one year and give the other team the option to swap their pick with the team that traded their first round pick in the previous draft for the upcoming draft. This allows teams to work around the not being allowed to trade picks two years in a row rule and ensure they will never have a good first round pick in the foreseeable future, if they are really committed to being the best team possible in one off-season. The Sixers will trade two unprotected first round picks and two pick swaps that could be used in any draft the Sixers are forced to keep their pick.
Next: What if Sixers Copied the Nets Rebuild Part 6