NBA teams rank of first round picks

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SharpesTriumph

SharpesTriumph

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Kind of sad the Blazers aren't anywhere on this list being in their 4th year of tanking;

1 Spurs
2 Thunder
3 Nets
4 Jazz
5 Rockets
6-9 Grizzlies
6-9 Pelicans
6-9 Raptors
6-9 Magic

https://www.espn.com/nba/insider/st...-round-draft-picks-trades-swaps-spurs-thunder

The Oklahoma City Thunder shocked the NBA world five years ago when they received a record five first-round draft picks, two pick swaps and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander from the LA Clippers in a trade for Paul George.

Thanks in part to that load of draft picks and Gilgeous-Alexander developing into an MVP contender, the Thunder are a favorite to win the Western Conference this season.


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The return value from that trade between the Clippers and Thunder set the standard in how fringe playoff teams would rebuild by acquiring multiple future draft picks and adding more young prospects to the roster.

In the years following that franchise-altering trade in 2019, other teams have followed the Thunder's blueprint to acquire picks and prospects. The Houston Rockets, Utah Jazz, San Antonio Spurs and Brooklyn Nets have acquired 22 first-round picks and seven years of pick swaps in six different trades. Each team received a minimum of three first-rounders.

In two separate trades with the Phoenix Suns and the New York Knicks, Brooklyn acquired nine first-round picks, including eight unprotected.

As a result of all the transactional movement, five teams control a whopping 62 first-round picks over the next seven years. Brooklyn, Oklahoma City, Utah and San Antonio hold 13 out of the 30 first-round selections.

The blockbuster trades have resulted in a perfect storm as it relates to the 2025 NBA draft that could feature the next franchise stars, Duke's Cooper Flagg, the Rutgers duo of Airious "Ace" Bailey and Dylan Harper and French guard Nolan Traore. The four players are projected top-5 picks in ESPN's latest 2025 mock draft.

To gain a better understanding of which teams are positioned to dominate the league's annual draft for the rest of this decade, here's my ranking of the cache of picks for the five teams that hold the most first-round choices as of Sept. 10, 2024.

It starts with San Antonio, which could have four first-round picks in June and the possibility of selecting a franchise player to complement star Victor Wembanyama.
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SharpesTriumph said:
Kind of sad the Blazers aren't anywhere on this list being in their 4th year of tanking;

1 Spurs
2 Thunder
3 Nets
4 Jazz
5 Rockets
6-9 Grizzlies
6-9 Pelicans
6-9 Raptors
6-9 Magic
Click to expand...

What is this list?
 
kjironman1 said:
You should have at least read the article before posting that sarcasm font.
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I did skim it. What did I miss? It seemed like a pretty good overview on the teams who have a lot of draft capital...
 
This thread's opening post is about "Ranking 5 NBA teams that hold most first-round draft picks." The Blazers lost.

A day ago, I read "Ranking all 68 traded future NBA first-round picks." We won.

Tip of the hat to the finder, HoopsRumor, including the paywalled link.

Which of the future first-round picks that have been traded are the most and least valuable? Sam Quinn of CBS Sports tries his hand at ranking those assets, listing 68 first-round picks and swaps from the least valuable (the Jazz‘s right to swap 2026 first-round picks with the Timberwolves) to the most valuable (the Bucks’ unprotected 2029 first-round pick, controlled by the Trail Blazers).
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And-Ones: Barkley, Traded Picks, Free Agency, MVP Odds | Hoops Rumors
 
Ranking all 68 traded future NBA first-round picks: Suns face surprising rival for dubious honor of No. 1 - CBSSports.com

Sam Quinn's "50 minute read" was behind a paywall, so I selected all, copied, and pasted to a word processor so I could read it. I'll paste the long article's winning 2 teams.

Ranking all 68 traded future NBA first-round picks: Suns face surprising rival for dubious honor of No. 1
Sixty-eight future first-round draft picks have changed hands, and we've ranked all of them by their value

By Sam Quinn
Sep 11, 2024 at 9:40 am ET
50 min read
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Read through 66 picks, then the winners:

2. Phoenix Suns, 2029
Currently belongs to: Houston Rockets or Brooklyn Nets
Protections: N/A
Owed, swapped or conditional? Owed

1. Milwaukee Bucks, 2029
Currently belongs to: Portland Trail Blazers or Washington Wizards
Protections: N/A
Owed, swapped or conditional? Owed
We're lumping the top two spots together to answer a simple question: why have I consistently ranked the Milwaukee picks over the Phoenix picks? There's one significant separator: the Suns have an out. If they wanted to trade Durant today for significant value, they could do so. It wouldn't be easy. Phoenix is a second-apron team, and teams above either apron basically can't trade with one another unless the salary going in each direction is dollar-for-dollar equal thanks to the new CBA, so the field is limited. The best teams are apron teams, and only teams with immediate championship aspirations would seek out Durant.

But we know of at least one team that was interested earlier in the offseason in Houston. I wrote in depth about why the Suns should have taken the Rockets up on that interest here. There's another obvious suitor in one of Durant's former teams, the Golden State Warriors, who aggressively pursued Lauri Markkanen this summer to try to re-enter the championship picture. The Warriors are locked below the first apron thanks to their offseason moves, and they'd need a third team for both salary and roster-size purposes, but there are doable constructions built around Andrew Wiggins, Jonathan Kuminga and draft capital. The point is, Durant is still good enough to draw a significant trade package. The Suns could refocus the team around Devin Booker and remain competitive moving forward.

It's just harder to find that sort of pivot for the Bucks. Could they... trade Lillard to the Heat? Maybe, but remember, Miami wasn't offering Portland enough to even seriously engage a year ago, and Lillard is worth meaningfully less today. Tyler Herro and a couple of draft picks aren't saving the Bucks. Milwaukee looked into Lopez trades this offseason. If there was a good one out there they would have taken it. Middleton has missed an average of around 30 games per year since winning the title in 2021. He can definitely still help almost any contender. He's just too much of a risk to draw a great trade package.

This version of the Bucks might be able to contend for another two or three years. This year might be it. It might already be over. But whenever it ends for this version of the team, it's ending. There's no backdoor short of, say, finding a star in second round of the draft or taking an enormous chance on a premium talent that comes with injury or off-court risks. They're old. They have no picks. They're expensive. The only real hope the Bucks have for avoiding a disaster at the end of this decade is loyalty out of Antetokounmpo. Is that possible? Sure. He hasn't left yet, after all, and by all indications he loves Milwaukee. But he's told us himself that he doesn't want to play for a team that can't win, and the Bucks are going to become that sort of team at some point in the near future. So either he changes his mind, or those Bucks picks are going to become the best outstanding draft assets in the NBA.

The last thing we need to note where this Bucks pick is concerned is the attachment to picks that originate in Boston (ranked No. 32 on this list) and Portland (ranked No. 34 on this list). As we covered in those sections, the Wizards receive the second-most favorable of those three picks and the Blazers receive the best and worst of them. You could argue that condition should diminish the value of this Bucks pick. If the Bucks are awful in 2029, Portland is guaranteed a high pick. However, if the Bucks are bad in 2029 and either the Blazers or Celtics are as well, Portland could wind up sending a very good pick to Washington even if it gets to keep a better one. That does represent meaningful value. But ultimately, it is value that I chose to reflect in the ranking of Portland's 2029 pick. One way or another, the Portland Trail Blazers will get a great pick if the 2029 Bucks are bad. Washington might stand to benefit as well, but if we are ultimately ranking the value of the owed picks themselves, Milwaukee's 2029 pick in a vacuum is the best one out there.
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