ROSTER TALK: Mavs favs for Vogel if no HC job exists. Kyrie handshake deal?

[DanSchwartzgan]

One thing that I think gets really glossed over still when we talk about trading picks is the Luka contract timeline.

Trading our 2027 pick this season means you HAVE to have heavy protections on that pick much like the second pick in the KP trade because Luka is not under contract by the time you have to send that pick off so making it unprotected would be crazy  

Just wanted to clarify one thing.  I think most know that if we get to the end of the first round and the NY pick conveys, we can trade 24, 26 and 28.  Luka will sign his super-max deal at the end of the 2026 season.  There are certainly advantages to waiting until this summer, but the thing you are worried about...trading picks beyond Luka's current contract...impinges upon how much draft capital can be given up this summer too.  Maybe you throw caution to the wind and do a deal anyway for the right guy, but that 28 pick is a risky thing to trade for the reason you outline.  Luka will take his money in July of 26, but there is no guarantee he hasn't pushed his way out by July of 28.

I often see someone reference trading our 2027 pick.  I also wanted to point out that we can trade our first pick in the next allowable draft.  It doesn't have to be specified as 2027 which becomes legal when the protections run out in 2025.  If worded as the next allowable, we would very likely trade 2025 instead of 2027.  Point being we can trade a pick now that is likely closer than 2027.