NBA draft lacked normal pizzazz
With free agency a little more than a week away, excitement is bound to pick up again
Hometown Nets fans are used to being bored at the NBA Draft since the team has traded away so many recent picks, but the entire affair was a bit of a dud for everyone this year.
Outside of the big Luka Doncic-Trae Young deal between Dallas and Atlanta early on and the where-will-he-land drama involving Michael Porter Jr., the night lacked the usual drama that we’ve grown accustomed to.
Only a year ago we saw a Chicago-Minnesota Jimmy Butler blockbuster before the draft even started, as well as Philadelphia moving up to No. 1 in a surprising deal with Boston, former No. 2 pick D’Angelo Russell moving and a Dwight Howard trade (OK, we got another one of those earlier this week, but nobody was particularly excited).
This time around, no deals were made on draft night involving existing NBA players. Not one, despite the usual chatter between front offices.
Why was this year so different than others? It all comes down to the uncertain futures of LeBron James and Kawhi Leonard, two of the league’s Top 5 players, as well as salary cap caution that continues to be the fallout of the disastrous summer of 2016, which saw many teams splash cash around in bizarre fashion. The steep price paid by Chicago to pick up a non-lottery selection from New Orleans (22nd overall) back in February also might have scared off potential opportunists.
The days off buying into drafts at minimal cost appear to be long gone.
The Bulls not only lost Nikola Mirotic, a solid player, but also absorbed Omer Asik’s $22-million dead-weight contract in that deal with the Pelicans, one that eventually helped Anthony Davis and Co. make the playoffs following the loss of DeMarcus Cousins. Even late second-rounders extracted higher returns than we’ve previously seen.
With James capable of shifting the balance of power in the East, depending on his free agency decision, Leonard’s impending divorce with San Antonio (though the club is still holding out some hopes of mending fences) and the continuing presence of mighty Golden State, nobody wanted to be bold.
“We were thinking this has to be the first time in history that one actual player under contract hasn’t got traded,” Raptors general manager Bobby Webster told reporters back in Toronto.
“Maybe some uncertainty with salaries, where things are headed. I don’t know if something ’s going on around the league and people are a little hesitant with personnel and just wanted to do draft picks tonight,” he said.
Webster and his boss Masai Ujiri are eager to make something happen, and wanted to at least start with a draft pick, but, as Webster repeated on Thursday, it takes two to tango.
“You probably have to ask the other teams, to be honest,” Webster said of how discussions about acquiring a pick went.
“I think we had a few things early, a few things in the middle and a few things late. I think we thought they were close, but you don’t really know.”
On the roster side, Jonas Valanciunas was dangled in each of the previous two summers without a bite. His value has gone up, but Jakob Poeltl had a rough finish to the season and new head coach Nick Nurse is likely the staunchest Valanciunas backer in the organization. They’ve listened to offers for DeMar DeRozan and would be happy to ease some luxury tax concerns (no matter how rich ownership is, it can always be even more profitable) by finding a new home for Norman Powell. “What happened to Powell?” was a common query from fellow reporters here in Brooklyn.
Dealing Powell likely becomes more difficult once his contract extension kicks in on July 1, so Toronto is likely hoping for business to pick back up around the league. Free agency is a little over a week away, and the waiting game is on before the action picks back up.
Despite this temporary lull, rest assured that a league that has been enthralling in recent off-seasons will pick up momentum again soon.