Why NBA teams were hesitant to trade first-round picks at the deadline - SB Nation

The night before the NBA trade deadline, ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reported that first-round picks, "have never been gripped so tightly in the league." He was right. Only one first-rounder was dealt on deadline day (a Cavaliers protected one), and many teams opted to keep players rumored to be on the block because those offers didn't include the elusive first-round picks they were seeking.

The Grizzlies held onto Tyreke Evans, who they benched for a week in anticipation of dealing, while turning down multiple offers involving second-round picks. The Celtics kept Marcus Smart and didn't make other trades with their war chest of future first-rounders. Julius Randle is still a Laker after L.A. reportedly turned down offers involving second-rounders. Both DeAndre Jordan and Lou Williams are still Clippers, and Williams is armed with a new contract extension.

All were reportedly on the trade block for some variation of a first-round pick. The Magic were the only team to settle for a second-round pick when they traded Elfrid Payton.

Why were teams so stingy on first-round picks?

Teams are out of money to spend, and picks produce cheap contracts

The salary cap's rise in the summer of 2016 caused a ton of teams to overpay for players they shouldn't have. The Knicks are trapped with Joakim Noah's bloated contract; the Nets are paying Timofey Mozgov $16 million per year via the Lakers; the Lakers are paying Luol Deng $18 million, and the list goes on. The consensus is that NBA general managers were not smart with the $24 million jump in cap space, having spent it on big-money, long-term deals that have aged poorly.

Now they're paying for it.

First-round picks are the cheapest way to fill out a roster with promising talent. The rookies are locked into four-year contracts at a "rookie scale" no matter how talented the player pans out to be.Then teams have the right to match any contract they receive in free agency after their fourth year. For teams over the cap, it's one of the few options left on the table to improve without crushing the balance sheet.

To get an idea of a few value deals, the Celtics are paying their 2015 first-round pick (No. 16) Terry Rozier just $1,988,520 this season to play a big role as backup point guard. That's just 2 percent of the $99.093 million cap.

The Raptors are known as one of the deepest teams in the league. They play FOUR players in their rotation who are still on rookie deals. 2016 first-round picks Jakob Poetl (No. 9) and Pascal Siakam (No. 27) make $2,825,640 and $1,249,920 million respectively. That's slightly less than 3 percent of the cap for Poetl and more than 1 percent of the cap for Siakam. They also pay both 2017 first-rounder OG Anunoby (No. 23 pick) and 2015 first-rounder Delon Wright (No. 20) $1,645,200, or 1.6 percent of the cap each.

All four of those players combined make 7.4 percent of the cap. Toronto is the perfect example of a team using rookie-scale contracts to their advantage, and they are what many teams want to replicate.

Drafting efficiently allows teams to keep rotation, or even starter-level players, on fixed cheap contracts for four years. That's an opportunity most teams can't afford to give up given how spent their payroll is.

This incoming 2018 NBA draft class is STACKED

There are seven or so players fighting for the right to be drafted No. 1 overall in a class many are deeming more top-heavy than the star-studded 2017 one.

Texas' Mo Bamba is a 7'0 Rudy Gobert-type with a 7'9 wingspan. Duke center Marvin Bagley is averaging 21 points and 11 rebounds per game. Slovenia's Luka Doncic is the guard-forward many have been raving about for years. Oklahoma's Trae Young leads the NCAA is points, assists, and can step back and launch anywhere like Steph Curry. Alabama's Collin Sexton might be the quickest guard in the country. Arizona's 7'0 center, DeAndre Ayton, is shooting 35 percent from three.

That's why the Cavs were so hesitant to part with their Nets pick.

This class is loaded, and we could see multiple All-Stars from it.

It runs deep too.

At least two players who were seen as lottery talents last year could fall outside of it. Michigan State wing Miles Bridges is a sizable shooter, and Texas A&M's Robert Williams is a steady big. Other talents like Kentucky's Hamidou Diallo, N.C. State's Omer Yurtseven and Duke's Grayson Allen loom as well. There's a ton of talent to be had in this year's draft.

That's why NBA teams were hesitant to let go of their first-round picks. There's a chance at finding gold on the cheap, and no team wants to give up that opportunity.

First-round picks were as hard to come by as ever at the 2018 trade deadline, and many teams are left clutching to their unwanted assets because of it.

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