The option itself can't go wrong: if the team guesses wrong and ends up with a better pick than the partner, oh well. That's why the pick swap option really has to be treated like a sweetener more than anything. The swap option only means anything if you're better than the partner. It's a game within the game because you're betting on two things: that the trading partner won't be great and that you'll be decent. But the pick swap option takes it a step further. There may be some calculus in choosing a year in which it is more likely your trading partner will be poorer (and thus, give up a better pick), but regardless, you're getting an asset, whether it's top five or No. When you trade for a draft pick, you know you're getting an asset. The question is whether the team giving up the option is really losing much, and whether the team taking it is gaining much. KG's quiet departure Paul Flannery on what it was like to cover him. But the Stepien Rule doesn't block the pick swap option, because the Nets will still have a pick that year. The Stepien Rule prevents them from trading their 2015, 20 picks to the Celtics (or anyone). The Nets traded their 2014, 20 first-round selections to Boston. It also helps to get around the Stepien Rule, which bars teams for trading future first-round picks from consecutive years. In that way, the team that conceded the pick swap option ensures it keeps a first-round pick it just may be lower than it otherwise would have been.

If the Nets' pick is to be higher than that of the Celtics, Boston will use Brooklyn's pick and give the Nets their own. For instance, the KG-Pierce deal includes a pick swap option for the Celtics in 2017. But it's really common now.) It provides the receiving team the ability to switch first-round picks with the other team. (It's not a new phenomenon by any stroke of the imagination.

Or, they can be unprotected, which carries more value.īut increasingly, teams are also using the pick swap option in deals. The Kings picked up Luc Richard Mbah a Moute for two second-rounders.) Picks can be protected to ensure you don't give up what eventually becomes Kyrie Irving (whoops!). (The Blazers traded a future second-rounder and Jeff Withey - who just went No. (The Celtics traded Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce largely for multiple first-rounders.) A second-round pick or two can get you a starter, in many cases. They are extremely useful in the market: enough first-round picks can land you a big name player if you have an expiring contract, movable matching contracts or cap space to take him on. Every NBA team trades draft picks at some point.

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