GrandAdmiralDan wrote:We're not giving away picks. We're selling a draft pick. The price is Gadzuric and his contract.
..1st round draft picks don't have that kind of value. Look what draft picks are just straight out bought and sold for....
For the $14 mil we'd be saving, we could buy five 1st round picks if you're so interested in 1st round picks.
Are you certain of being able to get that many picks for $14 million? Word is that Mario Chalmers was purchased from the Wolves for $2 million and he was the 34th pick. A #1 overall pick is clearly worth a lot more than $14 million at that rate (to be fair, you insisted on top 3 protection, but that wasn't the original question), and in the cases of Yao and LeBron, those picks were worth hundreds of millions of dollars in terms of franchise valuation alone, not even including on court production (in other words- rookie deal vs. actual worth).
The other part of the equation is that Gadz, while overpaid, is not useless. He would have to be replaced and a big man of his current quality is probably worth $2-3 million per year on the open market, judging from the deals that Elson and Allen, much worse players, got. So, the Bucks would really be saving about $8 million and possibly losing a top 10 pick. Judging from what it took to get Chalmers, a top 10 pick is worth that or more. If the pick is 17th or 19th or something, I'm with you, buy a later pick and save the approximately $5-6 million. Where the Bucks' pick lies won't be known until well after the deadline though, which is why I can't condone an un- or minimally protected trade of a 1st round pick.
edit: not sure if the $3 million cash limit for normal trades is in effect for draft pick purchases as well (I assume it is), but if it is, my point would be that teams would (usually, maybe there would be an exception if a team was about to fold or something or if the team is owned by Robert Sarver) value top ten picks more highly than $3 million and thus would not sell them for $3 million.
