navyblue wrote:Los_29 wrote:douggood wrote:lakers gave up 8th pick in 2022 to pelicans
maybe another lotto pick this year, maybe another lotto pick next year.
have picked in the lotto top 4, four or five times past decade. enough with the lakers invisibility talk. (randle ball ingram deangleo russell)
caris lavert with 1.5 years got (projected 24th pick this year to pacers) was a lotto protected pick becoming a 2nd.
derrick white with 3-4 years on contract got 24th pick and a swap.
The Lakers have 5 years to not become a lottery team. I don't think we are in a position to be betting on picks 5 and 7 years down the road. That would be a pretty disappointing trade in my opinion.
To you maybe they aren't valuable. But in analyst circle they are considered prime assets. Because they probably be unprotected. and time line doesn't matter since you can trade them. You could get 20th pick from some other teams right now, but the unknown pick down the road has more value.
This is the adult version of failing the marshmallow test.
If you tried trading Fred to a team that's sitting in the 7th seed in the west right now, they wouldn't even dream of giving you this year's pick without protections. Most of these teams are an injury away from sinking like a stone.
Even a 5% chance of losing out on the top pick is too much risk.
But a team could potentially talk themselves into a pick 6 + years down the line like that.
It's incredible value for a non-star to fetch.
