If you’re a team looking to add first-round picks in this year’s NBA Draft, the team to see may be the Trail Blazers, who own three first-rounders.
According to multiple league sources, the Trail Blazers have been open to deals for some combination of the picks. Portland has contract commitments to 12 players next season already, and a projected salary of $133 million, which is $12 million over the league’s luxury-tax threshold. That puts the Blazers in line for $21 million in luxury tax payments.
If Portland keeps all three picks, another $4 million would be added to the cap, which means $10 million more in tax payments. That could be deferred by choosing overseas players who remain out of the NBA next season.
Any deal involving a Portland pick would likely involve an easing (or erasing) of the team’s tax burden. Portland doled out
about $340 million in contract commitments — young holdovers Allen Crabbe, Moe Harkless, Meyers Leonard and C.J. McCollum, plus vets Festus Ezeli and Evan Turner — last summer following a solid, 44-win season. But they regressed to 41 wins this year, and apart from McCollum, none of their signees significantly improved.
Portland owns the No. 15, 20 and 26 picks in this draft, and several teams are eager to get into that mix. The Knicks have inquired about some combination of the Blazers’ picks, a source said, and those talks are ongoing. New York has the eighth pick and could trade down for a combination of picks, though the preference for the Knicks is to keep their pick and add one of Portland’s.
The Nets have inquired, too, and that could be interesting because of the Nets’ ability to absorb salary. Brooklyn stands to have about $40 million in cap space next summer, and without much to offer big-time free agents, leveraging that space to accumulate picks with bad contracts would make sense for the Nets, who will see the No. 1 pick swapped to Boston this year, and have next year’s pick sent to the Celtics, too.
For the time being, Portland wants to dump a salary in a deal for a pick. If they could dump the contract of the maddeningly frustrating Leonard, who is owed $31 million over the next two years and could get the Blazers close to slipping under the tax number, one of their picks could be had.
Not that simple, though. Crabbe might be the most inviting trade target, especially for the Nets. They offered him the four-year, $75 million deal he originally signed as a restricted free agent last July before the Blazers matched the terms. Problem is, Crabbe comes with a 15-percent trade kicker, and though the Blazers still like his potential, no team around the league likes him enough to tack on another $11.25 million via trade kicker for him.
Harkless is a more attractive option. He has $40 million coming to him over four seasons, and was better in many areas than Crabbe last year. But, as well-stocked as this draft is rumored to be, teams still appear reluctant to hand over much for picks.
Portland is not asking them to. As it stands, the Blazers are hoping teams will at least be willing to accept their bad contracts in draft deals, reluctant to continuing to pay tax on a team that won 41 games. It’s the best way to address a roster crowded with mediocrity, one careening toward a hefty tax payment.
