9:22am: The Pelicans received $2MM in cash from the Sixers in exchange for the No. 53 pick, reports Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).
9:10am: The Pelicans have traded the No. 53 pick in Thursday’s draft to the Sixers in exchange for cash considerations, New Orleans announced today (via Twitter).
This sort of deal typically happens during the draft when teams have a better sense of which players will be on the board, but this pick will change hands more than 12 hours before it’s actually used.
The Pelicans still have the 17th, 35th, 43rd, and 51st overall picks in the 2021 NBA draft. The team likely recognized it wouldn’t be making all five selections and decided to make an early move with the lowest of those picks. If New Orleans needs to add a second-rounder as a sweetener in a separate deal, the club still has three picks this year and several in future seasons that would work.
As for the 76ers, they now control the 28th, 50th, and 53rd picks in this year’s draft. If Philadelphia expects to be a taxpayer in 2021/22, using second-round picks on players who will earn the rookie minimum is a good way to ensure the final couple roster spots don’t add substantially to the team’s tax bill. But we’ll have to see what the Sixers have in mind with those second-rounders — it’s possible one or both could be flipped in another deal.
It’s not clear yet how much it cost the 76ers to buy the Pelicans’ pick. The Sixers sent a conditional $2MM to the Thunder in a deal near the start of the 2020/21 league year, so they were capped at sending out about $3.6MM before the ’21/22 league year begins.
Maybe Garza to the sixers
Better this pick than their own. Much less of a reach. I’d be thrilled.
I don’t buy 50-60
I take undrafted. I am cheap
I called it
Gotta pay Jaxson Hayes’ bail I guess…
This makes sense for both teams. NO does not need 4 2nds and Philly will use this for depth, affordable salary and likely confirms the trading of the 28th pick
Ok… pay 2mil for a pick that you won’t even pay 2mil to play. Somewhere, there has to be logic to doin that.
Maybe it’s included in the forthcoming Simmons trade.
Second round pick salary is very low. Its lower than vet minimum. By paying 2 Mil for a guy you can pay 800K for 3 years, you save on luxury tax bill.
Yea it’s just a cap move makes no sense in the real world.
I like it, and think it makes sense. We need cheap salary to round out the 14-15 spots on the roster (cheaply), it likely confirms the 28th pick will be traded (ideally as part of a larger deal with Hill or perhaps the much anticipated blockbuster)…or at the very least pair it with the 50 pick to get into the 40’s. I don’t see us adding 3 rookies to our roster that already has Reed, Joe and Maxey as 2nd year guys along with Tucker.
Probably won’t even be that much. Most picks in the 50s end up on two-way deals.
trying to get some extra picks to give to portland.
Actually, it is perfectly logical. All other things being equal, the lower the required payments under any contract, the higher the price to purchase the contract will be.
Because most of the 2nd round contracts (this low) are not guaranteed, its really an exclusive option to have the player under contract for 1-2-3 years and, if you do, to thereafter have insider rights to keep him. With guys who are borderline NBA players, its the only thing that makes committing resources to the player’s development feasible. Draft and stash players developed overseas are guys you can watch without committing anything to (roster spot, salary, development resources). These rights are as valuable as they are, but it has little to do with the salary the player makes under the deal.