The NBA trade market is in a confusing place. As the trade deadline approaches I've seen many trade ideas and tried to come up with some of my own, but especially after the Trae Young trade, I have no idea what any player's trade value looks like. Mikal Bridges went for 5 first-round picks. Desmond Bane went for 4. Trae Young went for 0? What does that mean for someone like Ja Morant? What about Lauri Markkanen? Giannis? The second apron has also complicated things. I have no idea what a team like the Cavs should do or can do while over the second apron. Freeing up salary was part of the reason for the Trae Young trade as well. Not to mention that NBA GMs make no sense half the time, if any of the recent higher profile trades were posted online the comments would call them insane and say they'd never happen. Not to mention the Luka trade lmao
What are your thoughts? What kind of trade value do players have? Do NBA GMs know what they're doing? Who should trade what for who? I'm curious what lemmy world NBA thinks.
I think using the previous trades of 4+ picks for valuation is inaccurate in the current market because way more teams are super conscious about avoiding the salary cap aprons.
Having locked in low salary players on rookie deals is huge for team building so picks are a bit more valuable especially given a lot of teams don’t have their own picks anymore.
I would say the exception to this is for a true tier 1 talent like Giannis since those players are worth the risk of an all in play but someone like Trae or Morant who have clear risks plus their salary impact to the rest of team building makes their trade value lower than in previous CBA agreements.