2021 NBA Draft Week

After a slow start to the week, boy did things heat up. I'll start with all of the trades first to show the comparison in contracts (salaries from BasketballInsiders.com) and then list every team's draft results at the bottom. This isn't meant to go too deep in analysis but rather serve as a reference point for every move that transpired.

Player option/Team option/Not fully guaranteed

Memphis and New Orleans swap picks, bigs, and big contracts

Pelicans receive:

Jonas Valanciunas

$14,000,000

#17 and #51 picks

Grizzlies receive:

Eric Bledsoe

$18,125,000

$19,375,000

Steven Adams

$17,073,171

$17,926,829

#10 and #40 picks

Lakers' 2022 1st round pick (protected 1-10)

The action got started early with this surprising deal on Monday that actually can't become official until the new league season begins next week. It was already expected, but Memphis will need to decline the $13 million team option for Justise Winslow in order to have the cap room to absorb the contracts Bledsoe and Adams. This is another opportunistic move from Zach Kleiman and their front office to leverage their flexibility into adding more assets in the form of moving up seven and 11 spots in the 1st and 2nd round of this draft while also adding an extra 1st round pick next year. Bledsoe, who is rumored to be moved again, only has $3.9 million guaranteed in the final year of his deal, and Adams' salary for next year is likely close to what Valanciunas is looking for in his next contract anyway. Although it was somewhat stunning to see them move an offensive hub like this, it is refreshing to see a franchise be honest with themselves about where they are in their timeline and stay the course with value moves like this.

Conversely, one would hope that New Orleans isn't trying to rush things too soon after moving onto their third coach in three years. This isn't quite like when they had a young Anthony Davis and kept trading away future picks since this regime has a lot of extra 1st rounders to work with, but the talk of them making this deal to clear significant cap space for 35 year old Kyle Lowry is a puzzler. Once this deal goes through, they could create up to $35.9 million in cap space by renouncing restricted free agents Lonzo Ball and Josh Hart and waiving the non-guaranteed contracts of Wenyen Gabriel and Didi Louzada. Keeping the cap hold of Hart before signing him to a new deal would put them at about $26.4 million, and sign-and-trades involving either of their free agents and a potential incoming signing are also possible to keep them as an over the cap team with access to the full MLE. For now, they gave up a likely late 1st and some equity in this draft to create flexibility and get an offensive upgrade at center. I don't buy Valanciunas as a "floor spacer" next to Zion Williamson considering how few threes he actually takes, but it does make for a dangerous front court pairing, even if at the cost of their biggest problem: defense.

Philadelphia buys late 2nd 

76ers receive:

#53 pick

Pelicans receive:

$2 million cash

It was a bit odd for a pick this late to be sold hours before the draft even starts without any idea of who will be available, but Philly had money to spend before the new league year resets. As much as I'm against teams straight up selling draft assets, I understand it for New Orleans since they have four picks in just the 2nd round alone, and this is a nice amount for a pick in the 50's.