Expansion Draft- just for fun

[JMAC3]

After seeing the same NBA finals for 4 years in a row. How fun would it be if the NBA added two teams via expansion draft and each team could only protect 2 players.

Only 1 player can be taken from each team. And two teams would draft snake style.

For instance

1. Seattle
2. Vegas
3. Vegas
4. Seattle
5. Seattle
6. Vegas
....

Expansion teams must stay under the cap.

Who would each team protect? Who would be first few picks?


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[JMAC3]

I think you would have to say players drafted in the first round of 2017 draft are ineligible. All other rookies are in play.


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[JMAC3]

So a few examples are...

Warriors could only protect KD and Steph... so either Klay or Draymond are gone.

Celtics can only protect 2 of Kyrie, Horford, Hayward, and Brown. (Tatum drafted in 2017 first so he cant be taken).

Hornets would protect Kemba and someone else. (Monk off-limits because 2017 rookie). Who would we keep?

However, both Klay and Draymond can't be drafted as only one player from each team can be drafted.

[JMAC3]

Free Agents are fair game- if unprotected.

If they are not protected, player can not resign with their previous team as free agents.

If they are unprotected and claimed then team that claims them receives bird rights to that player(ability to offer 5 year deal).

So for instance- if Rockets do not protect CP3. Rockets can not sign in free agency. If he was claimed by Seattle- they would own bird rights giving them a better chance at signing him over other teams in free agency.

Therefore Cleveland would most likely protect Lebron.

[JDR720]

I would protect Monk and Kemba.

Considered not protecting Kemba, I dont think an expansion team would want to pick an impending free agent as one of their top players. But then i was like "Well, who else is worth protecting" and I dont really think anyone else we have is attractive, maybe Willy or Lamb for cheaper depth players.

[JMAC3]

Monk wouldnt need to be protected because he was just drafted. So maybe Lamb or Zeller?

[JDR720]

and if im picking im definitely trying to get Klay and Saric off the top of my head.

[fatlever]

rules from last time...
protect 8 players under contract. UFAs and RFAs aren't eligible or players with options. If you don't have 8 eligible to protect, then you must expose at least 1 eligible player.

1. kemba
2. monk
3. cody
4. mkg
5. willy
6. bacon
7. frank
8. lamb
(not in that order)

expose - Batum, Dwight
- have convo with both 1st, in case neither get picked. not worth having pissed off guys making 20+ mil.

[fatlever]

so... build a team using 3rd best player from each team? rookies from last year don't count? and why is that?

[fatlever]

my team

jrueholiday/klay/jaylen/saric/capela
d murray/j murray/ingles/sabonis/adams
chriss/aminu

7 guys on rookie deals should help finances

[JMAC3]

In this model, two expansion teams would be picking so the team wouldn’t be as good. Also, with two teams your picking guys off teams like hawks, grizzlies and kings by the end.

Also, don’t think Pelicans leave Jrue unprotected. Cousins probably walks. Not sure if thunder protect george or Adams as number two with all the talk of him leaving.

Klay first? Then who would other team come back with as their back to back picks?


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[JMAC3]

Otto porter would be a high pick


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[fatlever]

Let's do this right... come up with the 2 protected players for each team. Then we can put some time and energy into this.

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[JDR720]

My Protected List. (with with 2017 and 2018 draftees auto protected).

Warriors: Curry and Durant
Cleveland: LeBron and Love
OKC: Westbrook and Adams
Heat: Dragic and Richardson
Wizards: Wall and Beal
Pistons: Drummond and Kennard
Pelicans: Davis and Cousins
Portland: Dame and CJ
Houston: Harden and Capella
Clippers: Jordan and Harris
Minnesota: Towns and Butler
Hornets: Kemba and Frank
Toronto: DeMar and Lowry
Spurs: Leonard and LaMarcus
Celtics: Irving and Brown
Grizz: Rabb and Green
Nuggets: Jokic and Murry
Knicks: Porzingis and Kanter
Utah: Gobert and Exum
Lakers: Randle and Ingram
76ers: Simmons and Embiid
Hawks: Schroder and Prince
Magic: Gordon and Vuc
Nets: Russell and RHJ
Kings: WCS and Bogdan
Suns: Booker and Warren
Pacers: Myles and Dipo
Bulls: LaVine and Dunn
Dallas: Barnes and Powell



We can totally have a little competition if enough people are interested. Also, some of these teams are pretty bad or have lots of new draftees so they dont really need (or want to ) protect 2 players so can it be an option to protect just 1 player or even none?

[316Hornets]

My Protected List. (with with 2017 and 2018 draftees auto protected).

Warriors: Curry and Durant
Cleveland: LeBron and Love
OKC: Westbrook and Adams
Heat: Dragic and Richardson
Wizards: Wall and Beal
Pistons: Drummond and Kennard
Pelicans: Davis and Cousins
Portland: Dame and CJ
Houston: Harden and Capella
Clippers: Jordan and Harris
Minnesota: Towns and Butler
Hornets: Kemba and Frank Would choose Zeller over Frank
Toronto: DeMar and Lowry
Spurs: Leonard and LaMarcus
Celtics: Irving and Brown Tatum over Brown
Grizz: Rabb and Green Conley and Gasol
Nuggets: Jokic and Murry
Knicks: Porzingis and Kanter
Utah: Gobert and Exum Mitchell over Exum
Lakers: Randle and Ingram Ball over Randle
76ers: Simmons and Embiid
Hawks: Schroder and Prince
Magic: Gordon and Vuc
Nets: Russell and RHJ
Kings: WCS and Bogdan
Suns: Booker and Warren
Pacers: Myles and Dipo
Bulls: LaVine and Dunn
Dallas: Barnes and Powell



We can totally have a little competition if enough people are interested. Also, some of these teams are pretty bad or have lots of new draftees so they dont really need (or want to ) protect 2 players so can it be an option to protect just 1 player or even none?

[BeesWax]

My Protected List. (with with 2017 and 2018 draftees auto protected).

Warriors: Curry and Durant
Cleveland: LeBron and Love
OKC: Westbrook and Adams
Heat: Dragic and Richardson
Wizards: Wall and Beal
Pistons: Drummond and Kennard
Pelicans: Davis and Cousins
Portland: Dame and CJ
Houston: Harden and Capella
Clippers: Jordan and Harris
Minnesota: Towns and Butler
Hornets: Kemba and Frank Would choose Zeller over Frank
Toronto: DeMar and Lowry
Spurs: Leonard and LaMarcus
Celtics: Irving and Brown Tatum over Brown
Grizz: Rabb and Green Conley and Gasol
Nuggets: Jokic and Murry
Knicks: Porzingis and Kanter
Utah: Gobert and Exum Mitchell over Exum
Lakers: Randle and Ingram Ball over Randle
76ers: Simmons and Embiid
Hawks: Schroder and Prince
Magic: Gordon and Vuc
Nets: Russell and RHJ
Kings: WCS and Bogdan
Suns: Booker and Warren
Pacers: Myles and Dipo
Bulls: LaVine and Dunn
Dallas: Barnes and Powell



We can totally have a little competition if enough people are interested. Also, some of these teams are pretty bad or have lots of new draftees so they dont really need (or want to ) protect 2 players so can it be an option to protect just 1 player or even none?

Tatum, Mitchell and Ball are protected because they were from the 2017 draft. For the Hornets I would save Hernangomez and Kemba.

[Vanderbilt_Grad]

I'm just going to say that nearly every former expansion team would vote against protecting only two guys. If teams had only been able to protect 2 guys back in 2004 the new Bobcats would have been an entirely different team.

[JMAC3]

Look at hockey tho, why should the expansion team suck for 4 years. This evens out playing field and makes that team instantly competitive.

No team would be devastated by this in all honesty. I think the expansion team would be a fringe playoff team most likely. Also this opens up 2 new head coaching gigs, which would be cool as well.


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[fatlever]

Great list JD. You definitely put some thought into those selections, I like it. Seems you off and chose to expose some good high value contracts like Horford hoping that an expansion team might be scared off by picking up such an expensive older player, in order to save a young guy like brown. That definitely makes it tougher when picking players. I do think we should change cousins to Holiday for the Pelicans. While cousins may have more value, I could definitely see the Pelicans dangling him out there since they aren't sure that he'll resign, whereas holiday was just a huge part of their playoff run and seems to have great chemistry with Davis.

I think people should treat this as having the two expansion teams and select two different teams pick by pick alternating each team. In the end each team can pick up the 15 players So in theory every single team might have a player chosen off of that roster. Also include contract status and contract value so we can see how expensive everyone's rosters are. Roster should stay under the salary cap of 101 million. However since you have bird rights for your free agents you could in theory go over that cap to resign your free agents. So if you chose a bunch of it free agents who are soon to be paid a lot of money, you could end up with a 200 million dollar roster as an expansion team if you wanted to pay that kind of salary. Or you could go the cheap route and select a bunch of restricted free agents and players on their rookie deals in order to save up cap space.

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[LofJ]

A real expansion draft is coming in the near future, so it's a good idea to put some thought into this. I'll put something together later when I'm done with work.