In past years, the number of lowly teams in disarray at the bottom of the league would’ve been good news for teams looking to buy on the trade market as the Golden State Warriors are right now.
But the NBA’s draft lottery reform changes the equation, putting a roadblock in front of the Warriors as they try to resolve their Kristaps Porzingis situation with a move in the coming weeks.
Draft lottery reform shrinks Warriors' Kristaps Porzingis trade market
There are already a number of teams around the league whose seasons appear over before they even begun. Take the Chicago Bulls, Utah Jazz, Sacramento Kings and Milwaukee Bucks who have each won just one game on the season, while a potential trade partner like the New Orleans Pelicans are coming off four-straight losses by a combined 107 points.
In previous seasons, these teams may have seen enough to pull the plug already and look to sell their veteran players, but the lottery reform now gives them incentive to try and win enough games to ensure they don’t finish in the bottom three of their conference.
Not only could these bottom teams not become the sellers that Golden State would hope to capitalize on, but they may actually become buyers themselves according to The Stein Line's Jake Fischer on Thursday.
Will everybody be buyers at the trade deadline?" one Western Conference executive wondered to Fischer. "The executive then added that it's his sense that various struggling teams have already begun looking for upgrades in exploratory discussions and are doing so earlier on the calendar than such calls are usually made," Fischer wrote.
Warriors have to focus on teams with financial issues
Rather than focusing purely on the bottom teams who may have been sellers in previous seasons, the Warriors best hopes of executing a Porzingis trade is likely to land with teams who are underperforming while also possessing a significant payroll.
This may narrow the list of potential trade partners to teams like the Phoenix Suns and perhaps most notably the Orlando Magic, both of who are multiple games below 500 right now while also being above the tax.
Finding the right Porzingis trade remains a tricky balance for the Warriors given their own situation, and it’s more complicated by a lottery reform that now incentivises lowly teams to keep their veterans rather than moving them to either acquire draft value, and/or to make themselves even worse to improve their lottery odds.
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