2026 NBA draft thread

[KillerLeft]

That’s kind of my point though. To the ones that say trade Kyrie, that’s perfectly reasonable to me, but then you ask yourself “what’s the return”. The typical answer is a top 10 pick. Again, reasonable ask. BUT it takes two to tango. 
Who in the top 10 is trading for Kyrie on draft night? If I squint really hard I can see one, and that’s if they keep Giannis. 

Okay, now all of those ducks have to line up... Milwaukee has to get a longterm commitment from Giannis the next few weeks, trade their negative value contracts for salary matching, and pick 10 for Kyrie, who’s coming off an 18 month absence? That’s their all-in move?! That’s Masai’s first move in Dallas? 

It’s just fantasy land to me… There’s only ONE potential trade partner.

The TDL is the only realistic timeline for everyone involved, and that’s 9 months away. Yet “trade Kyrie” is sometimes dominating draft thread talk…

I don't think it's reasonable to ask for a top 10 pick in this draft for Kyrie, personally. I think that would be a terrible move for the other team, even if the other team was MIL trying to pair him for the final stretch of Giannis' career. I could see an argument for them doing that, but if I worked there or even was just a fan of that team I wouldn't be into it, personally. 

However, I also don't think *something immediately, overtly better than having Kyrie on the court* is the level that would have to be satisfied to get me to pull the trigger on a Kyrie trade. I think it's a NO-BRAINER that you'd let him go for a top 10 pick in this draft, but I'd be tempted for a package that included chances of a pick ending up in the top 10 down the road. Frankly, I'd do it for a player much less accomplished, but with runway and potential to hit his stride right around the time Flagg was fully mature. I don't say this because I don't value what Kyrie has meant and could potentially still mean to Dallas on the court at all, but I'm looooooooong past believing this thing is going to make noise while he's still here. 

All of that to say, I wouldn't want to give him away at all, but for a package that could plausibly improve things down the road a year or two (about the time he'd be leaving, anyway), sign me up. I think there are a hundred different forms that could take. For all the dissecting of potential AD trades we did around here all year, the one they chose was out of left field, not discussed, and frankly better than most of our (realistic) favorites. 

If I were trying to build a Kyrie trade, I think MIL (in those specific circumstances you mention) might make some sense, but honestly I'd start by looking at the playoff teams (from this year) who can't get out of the first or second round, first.

Put another way, any logic behind trading Kyrie is based on "trading old for young," and when you do that, the team getting the "old" has to get the "better"...that's they only way those trades ever happen. Ever.