Financial Fallout from 2023 NBA Draft

Keith Smith
Keith Smith, Resident NBA ExpertJune 23, 2023
Share
#nba #nba draft
© USA TODAY Sports

The 2023 NBA Draft is in the books. 58 players joined the NBA ranks (the Chicago Bulls and Philadelphia 76ers forfeited their second-round selections due to tampering with Lonzo Ball and P.J. Tucker, respectively), and a slew more have already agreed to two-way contracts and camp deals.

This draft was a bit lighter on trades than recent years. As various deals finalize, it looks as though we’ll have 10 to 12 total trades. Only two trades agreed to on draft day featured established NBA players. Most others involved draft pick movement, where 2023 picks swapped in exchange for a team adding a future draft pick down the line.

Instead of your typical “Winners and Losers” post-draft piece, we’re going to focus on the financial fallout from the draft from some of the draft’s big movers.

Dallas Mavericks

Dallas came into the offseason without a lot of flexibility, but with several needs to fill. Of course, the primary concern is to re-sign Kyrie Irving, but the Mavericks have other work to do too. The draft got them started.

Dallas swung a trade with the Oklahoma City Thunder that saw them drop back just two picks, while shedding the $17 million salary of Davis Bertans. That shed of Bertans created a $17 million Traded Player Exception (TPE), and that came into play with the Mavs second draft-day trade.

After dropping back from the 10th pick, Dallas selected Dereck Lively II with the 12th pick, Lively seems like a perfect fit for the team’s frontcourt. He’s a defender, rebounder and rim runner. If he can set good enough screens, he’ll work nicely with Luka Doncic and Irving.

The Mavs weren’t done there. In their second deal, Dallas used their newly-created TPE to bring in Richaun Holmes from the Sacramento Kings, while also picking up the 24th pick. The Mavericks selected Olivier-Maxence Prosper. He seems like an immediate replacement for what Dallas lost when they traded Dorian Finney-Smith in the deal to acquire Irving. Holmes will fill a need alongside Lively in the frontcourt. Those two should give Dallas 48 minutes of solid center play.

As free agency opens, the Mavericks should be about $58.4 million under the first tax apron. That should give Dallas enough wiggle room to use the Taxpayer MLE of $5 million, while avoiding the second tax apron, assuming Irving re-signs on a max deal.

For only moving back two spots in the draft, Dallas did quite well. They shed a burdensome salary, got two centers and a forward, while creating some spending power. That’s a good night’s work.

Sacramento Kings

No team changed their summer spending outlook more than Sacramento did. With one move, the Kings created over $35 million in cap space for this offseason. That puts Sacramento in play to go a lot of different directions.

As referenced above, the Kings sent out Richaun Holmes and the 24th pick (Olivier-Maxence Prosper) to the Mavericks. As of this writing, it’s unclear what Sacramento got back from Dallas, but it seems likely that it will be a minor item (draft rights to a player or a protected second-round pick). The goal seems to have been to clear cap space for Sacramento.

What can they do with all this space? The options are aplenty.

One way to use some of this space could be to renegotiate-and-extend Domantas Sabonis’ contract. At his current $22 million, it doesn’t really make sense for Sabonis to sign a veteran extension, as he’d be leaving quite a bit of money on the table.

In a renegotiation-and-extension, the Kings could bump Sabonis’ salary up quite a bit for this coming season, while also adding on some new years moving forward. For a full explainer on this process, we wrote about the Indiana Pacers renegotiating-and-extending Myles Turner ahead of that being exactly what happened. Sacramento could take the same approach, coincidentally, with Turner’s former teammate Sabonis.

If the Kings prefer to hold off, and have a wink-wink agreement in place to take care of Sabonis in the summer of 2024, they can have the fourth-most cap space in the NBA this summer. That’s huge, as the three teams above them on the list (Houston, Utah and San Antonio) are still in various stages of rebuilding.

Could the Kings get in on an offer for Khris Middleton? Kyle Kuzma? Bring Harrison Barnes back for a bit less than last year, then still have around $17 million to spend? Sacramento could also use that space to facilitate a trade for a bigger-salary player. Again, the options are plentiful.

After years of wandering the NBA wilderness, the Kings had a great season. They’re core is in place long-term. Now it’s time to supplement that group and start a new streak, one of playoff appearances.

Oklahoma City Thunder

This one is fairly simple. Oklahoma City could have had over $30 million in cap space this summer. They targeted Cason Wallace as their guy, so they sacrificed about half of their cap space to eat Davis Bertans’ contract from Dallas and moved up for Wallace.

In order to bring in Bertans, the Thunder will have to dip under the cap first. Then they can bring in the veteran forward using straight cap space. That should still leave Oklahoma City with around $16 million or so in cap space.

Also: The Thunder rehab process will probably have Davis Bertans hitting about 45% from three and playing great at the trade deadline. At that point, they’ll probably flip him for a future first-round pick, because that’s what Sam Presti and the Thunder do.

Detroit Pistons

The Pistons ate into their cap space a little bit, and gave up to two future second-round picks, to get an additional first-round pick. Detroit comes away with Marcus Sasser, who should be a terrific fit for their backcourt.

The Pistons will still have about $30 million in cap space to work with this summer. That’s enough for Troy Weaver to make some moves. Whether that’s eating more contracts in exchange for assets, or signing veterans to push the rebuild forward is to be determined.

Indiana Pacers

The Pacers were linked to Jarace Walker about as soon as the lottery order was set. Indiana got their guy, while moving back just one pick and snagging a couple of extra second-round picks in the process. That alone would have been a major win for the Pacers.

But dropping back a pick, also gives Indiana a bit more in spending power this summer. The Pacers will hit the offseason with the fifth-most cap space at just over $32 million. Without any key free agents to re-sign, Kevin Pritchard and staff can get to work on adding to a roster that is better than you think.

Also: The Pacers only really have about one roster spot to fill. That means they can overpay to get a targeted free agent. Think about then the Philadelphia 76ers were pushing the process forward and overpaid for JJ Redick. That worked out tremendously well. Indiana doesn’t have to spread money around to fill a bunch of roster spots. They can do the same sort of thing and come away with a free agent they really like. As long as the deal is short enough, it’s almost impossible for it to turn sour.

Washington Wizards

We’ve already broken down the Bradley Beal trade, Kristaps Porzingis trade and Jordan Poole-Chris Paul swap in depth. But the Wizards weren’t done. And, to be honest, they’ve still got a ton of work to do, as the roster skews guard- and veteran-heavy for a rebuilding team. Sources said the Wizards are engaged with several teams in trade talks leading up to the opening of free agency.

As far as the draft went, Washington moved up a pick, at the expense of their newly-acquired second-round picks, to draft Bilal Coulibaly. There isn’t a major financial impact here, but the Wizards did take on slightly more money for Coulibaly with the seventh pick, as opposed to the eighth pick. But they got the highest-riser as far as draft stock goes, and Coulibaly now becomes a core piece moving forward.

In addition, Patrick Baldwin Jr. was added to the Poole-Paul trade. That’s a great flyer for Washington. He’s got a ton of talent and should see a lot more minutes with the Wizards than he was going to get with the Warriors.

Denver Nuggets

The Nuggets were very busy in the days leading up to the draft, but in a measured, targeted way. Denver has a top-heavy salary sheet with Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr. on max deals. Aaron Gordon and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope are both on healthy mid-range contracts. None of that is negative, as that’s the core of a title team.

However, it does mean Denver needs to be smart about filling out their roster. They’ve already got Christian Braun on a rookie scale deal, and they’re excited about Peyton Watson’s potential as their other 2022 first-round draftee.

The Nuggets doubled down (tripled down?) by moving future picks to secure three selections in the late-first and early-second round in the 2023 draft. Julian Strawther will be a rotation player eventually on his first-round rookie scale deal. In the second round, Denver snagged Jalen Pickett and Hunter Tyson. Presumably both will sign under the new Second Round Pick Exception, which will give Denver team-control for three to four seasons at right around the minimum for both players.

Even if only one of these players pans out, that’s a rotation contributor on a team-friendly deal. That’s key for a team that will be dancing around the super tax line for the next few years.

 


#nba #nba draft
Top