Am I correct in that if the Pelicans pick doesn't fall between 4 and 14 we get nothing? No second rounder, no cash, nothing? That doesn't seem right. Currently they are in the perfect spot though thankfully.
also, worth noting since I haven't seen it mentioned much, the Blazer did get a future 2nd and a future 2nd round pick swap out of the deal: https://basketball.realgm.com/nba/draft/future_drafts/detailed those 2nds aren't worth much but they can grease the wheels of a larger trade
WTF kinda protections are those? If we don't get it this year, it goes to 2025 Mil top 4 protected. If even that doesn't convey, then it goes to NOTHING? Cronin, you fucking moron...
I think we put ourselves in a bad place to leverage the value that everyone in the league knew that CJ did have. I also think we saw with both trades that Cronin was a poor negotiator who allowed his competition to have the view of him as being in a position of weakness because he's got the interim tag, hasn't ever been a GM before, had a mandate from ownership to get under the tax, etc. A good negotiator negates those factors by creating competition for their assets. You can do that through a lot of methods but the fact that the Clippers trade was seen pretty much universally around the league as a trade that sent out way more value than it brought back emboldened the Pelicans and any other team we engaged about CJ to pull bullshit like the protections on the pick that exist. Next year's Pelicans/Lakers pick without condition should have been what it rolled to or if it had conditions should have rolled to any of their three picks in 2024 or the worst of them or if that had conditions, to the pick we actually got as the contingency, which should have rolled to multiple seconds if it kept the conditions it currently has. We were dealing with the team with the second largest cache of future picks in the league. There was no reason to let them off with such favorable protections and a possibility of ending up with nothing. I think it's all going to turn out OK and we'll get a valuable mid to late lottery pick in this draft to use as we see fit but just the fact that Cronin took the protections he did made it a worse deal and making two deals that many executives had to have seen as poor makes Cronin's position as a negotiator in the future one of weakness.
We don’t know for sure, but from what we have seen (the results), Cronin seems like a very bad negotiator. Maybe there was a reason he was an assistant GM for like 20 years and never got pursued to go elsewhere.
Can someone explain to me why the pick is protected from 15-30? I understand why the Pelicans would want one of the first four picks, but why are they so interested in keeping the pick after 14?
they had already traded that 1st round pick to Charlotte; it was lottery protected (1-14). So they traded the lottery protection to Portland but added protections for 1-4. That leaves the Blazer window as 5-14 I understand that the Pels did not want to give up a potential 1-4 pick for CJ. I don't fault Cronin for giving them that 1-4 protection but the Pels had these future picks available: it's probably minor but Cronin also allowed the Pels to put 1-4 protections on that Milwaukee pick. If he was going to allow protections after losing the 2022 Pels pick, it should have been the Laker pick(s) protected 1-4
It was traded, but Lottery protected. They then traded the 5-14 protected portion to Portland and kept the Top 1-4 part.
