NBA TRADE TALK: TDL over

[SleepingHero]

Teams do that pick swap BS to circumvent the non-consecutive rule all the time. Question is whether you can also do that with a 1st and 2nd round pick. "If the pick doesn´t fall into the top 16 the Magic have the option to swap their 2nd for our 1st."

The Mavs cannot include their 1st this year legally in any trade. At all. Full stop. The Stepien rule explicitly states you can't go 2 drafts in a row without a first round pick, so you can't do a pick swap between a 1st and a 2nd to circumvent the Stepien rule. 

You can easily get the Knicks to waive that protection and we can trade our 2025+ picks for Lillard. It looks like the Knicks have their own big plan for Zion, and the more unprotected picks they can offer the Pelicans the better for them. So having an unprotected Mavs picks makes even more sense under these circumstances.

If it was so easy I'm sure the Mavs would have done it already. And as much as I would like Lillard I don't see how any Mavs package is nearly as attractive as say a 76ers package or even a pick based OKC package. 

I like the team, we just need a Lillard-esque upgrade for THJ and one legit C. We don´t need to trade half the team. They earned that trust over the last 25 games. The only question marks are the Porzingis health evalution and the Brunson/DFS re-sign status. Those are not on-court performance issues.

This team doesn´t have the guaranteed 1st round exit stink all over them. It´s not a championship team yet, but NOW it´s good enough that a Beal or Lillard could buy into being the missing piece (and some ring-chasing minimum veterans)

I actually I agree with you we are 1 star away from being finals bound. I just don't see the Lillard angle as much as I'd like to. Brandon Ingram is the name I keep coming back to and his fit next to Luka. He's also a long lanky defender that is switchable which fits Kidd's defensive philosophy.