Exchange for future picks
While we haven’t seen evidence of this, the Philadelphia 76ers should strongly consider converting today’s surplus into tomorrow’s talent. While the 2018 NBA Draft has likely six picks, the 2019 NBA Draft will have just one first round pick and two second round picks. That is a significant reduction for a team which had grown accustomed to the presence of multiple first and second round selections. But it’s more than just losing a cozy feel for the fans.
The team will begin to bump the ceiling of the NBA Salary Cap as the team improves. Good players get paid in the NBA. And as the Philadelphia 76ers improve, their players become good players. And good players get paid in the NBA. So the draft becomes the salary buoyancy factor many teams use to keep their 15 man roster within salary cap constraints. We had discussed this before, as we talked about how to best set up an NBA roster.
Great production vs. great value
Competing forces drive NBA personnel decisions. Young players often bring great value to an NBA team. The right veterans bring great production. To fans and online NBA GM simulators, the great production wins out. But that is not how the NBA works. It takes an NBA prospect several years to fully develop their NBA skills. That’s why the Philadelphia 76ers, whose core is currently Ben Simmons, Joel Embiid, and Dario Saric, have such future upside. They are getting better.
But it’s the same reason the team signed veteran free agents Marco Belinelli and Ersan Ilyasova on the fly. The Philadelphia 76ers bench needed stronger scoring, and those two players have helped upgrade the bench somewhat. Pushing current draft picks back to future drafts ensures that this team will have a steady stream of young value to aid the team’s salary cap management.