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NBA: Abolish protection of draft picks in trades

By Phil Watson

Mar 28, 2014; Minneapolis, MN, USA; Los Angeles Lakers guard Steve Nash (10) looks on during the second half against the Minnesota Timberwolves at Target Center. The Timberwolves won 143-107. Mandatory Credit: Jesse Johnson-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 28, 2014; Minneapolis, MN, USA; Los Angeles Lakers guard Steve Nash (10) looks on during the second half against the Minnesota Timberwolves at Target Center. The Timberwolves won 143-107. Mandatory Credit: Jesse Johnson-USA TODAY Sports /
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The ability of NBA general managers to protect future draft picks in trades is one of those ideas that looked better on paper than it has in execution.

The concept is simple enough: The collective bargaining agreement provides for the trading of future draft picks and allows teams to “protect” those future picks.

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An example of this is the Los Angeles Lakers’ first-round pick in the 2015 NBA Draft. That pick, traded to the Phoenix Suns as part of the Steve Nash sign-and-trade deal in July 2012, is “top-five protected.”

It’s just like it sounds—if that pick is in the top five in the draft order in June, the Lakers keep the pick and it becomes top-three protected for 2016 and 2017 and unprotected in 2018.

That pick now belongs to the Philadelphia 76ers, who acquired it as part of a three-team deal at the trade deadline last month between the Suns, 76ers and Milwaukee Bucks.

Again, the theory of the protected pick is solid enough.

But in practice, general managers become the equivalent of the kid in the lunch room who agrees to swap desserts with you … until he discovers the chocolate cake in his bag and tries to renegotiate the trade.

There have been some blatant examples of teams making in-game decisions based on attempting to hang onto a draft pick that was protected in a trade.

In 2011-12, the Golden State Warriors went 3-17 in their final 20 games, finishing with a 23-43 record—seventh-worst in the NBA.

As part of a trade in July 2008, then-general manager Chris Mullen had dealt a future first-round pick in 2011 (lottery protected in the top seven) to the New Jersey Nets.

The Warriors held onto the pick in 2011, which carried the same top-seven protection in 2012.

The pick eventually was traded in 2013, because the tank job carried out by the Warriors down the stretch in 2011-12 was just enough to keep the pick in the top seven. Golden State selected Harrison Barnes with the No. 7 pick.

That happened in part because the Warriors were gaming the system, doing things such as playing rookie second-round pick Charles Jenkins—long since gone from the NBA—an average of 37.6 minutes per game over the final six games of the season, during which Golden State was 1-5.

In their last game of the season, the Warriors used only seven players, with a starting lineup of Chris Wright, Jeremy Tyler, Mickell Gladness, Klay Thompson and Jenkins, with Mikki Moore playing 29 minutes off the bench and Dominic McGuire getting 27 minutes of burn as a reserve.

Richard Jefferson, Nate Robinson, Brandon Rush and Dorell Wright were all DNP-CDs that night (did not play-coach’s decision). Andris Biedrins didn’t play because of a concussion, David Lee was out after abdominal surgery and Andrew Bogut and Stephen Curry were inactive.

That collection of “talent” was bad enough to lose to a San Antonio Spurs team that sat out Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, Tony Parker, Kawhi Leonard and Stephen Jackson.

Back to that Lakers’ pick.

While it’s certainly been amusing to see the fan base of the Lakers go collectively insane each time the team wins a game, what sort of mess has been created when fans root for their team to be as awful as possible?

That would be the sort of mess that enables Sixers GM Sam Hinkie to keep his job by selling a perpetual rebuild to his fan base.

If commissioner Adam Silver is serious about addressing the issue of blatant tanking by teams, the issue of draft-pick protection has to be addressed.

I get it—early draft picks have more value than later ones.

But if you’re going to trade a pick, trade the damn pick. Make a decision. Commit to it.

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Where do the Washington Wizards rank in terms of future draft assets?
Where do the Washington Wizards rank in terms of future draft assets? /

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    • What the protected draft pick does is allow general managers to defer consequences of decisions that might not have been the best.

    Lakers’ GM Mitch Kupchak may not have to give up a lottery pick for a broken-down point guard who has logged 65 games and 1,940 minutes in three seasons with his team, even though he agreed to include said first-round pick in the ill-advised deal to get a then-38-year-old point guard with a decade-long history of back problems.

    The NBA is the big leagues, the best, most prestigious professional basketball league in the world.

    The executives in that league shouldn’t have the luxury of being able to hedge their bets.

    As we’ve seen, it’s just bad for business.

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