If Lakers are Serious About Trading Top 3 Pick for a Veteran, They Would Be First Team to Do That in 30 Years
By Jason Lisk
The Lakers might be considering trading a top 3 pick (if they retain it in the lottery) for a veteran player like DeMarcus Cousins, Paul George or Jimmy Butler, according to multiple reports. Our Ryan Phillips explained why that would be a really bad idea. Now, let’s talk about just how rare that type of move would be.
Plenty of teams have traded away draft picks for veterans that ultimately became top 3 picks in the draft. My guess is plenty of those teams were overconfident in their futures and didn’t expect the results of the trade to end up with them at the top of the draft lottery.
Cleveland trading Mo Williams to the Clippers in 2011, and then getting the 1st overall pick (Kyrie Irving) is one example, as the Clippers had the 8th-worst record and that trade happened in February, before the slot was set.
In the 1970s and 1980s, teams like the Cavaliers and Clippers traded away future first round picks–often years in advance–like they were giving away candy on Halloween. (It’s a tradition that the current Nets are trying to keep alive.) In 1977, for example, the 76ers traded Terry Furlow, who averaged 2.6 points as a 22-year old rookie, to the Cleveland Cavaliers for the 1981 and 1983 first-round picks. Those became the 4th and 3rd overall picks, respectively, and didn’t come due until after Furlow was out of the league.
But this situation is different. It’s not incompetence that results in losing a future great pick. It’s a consideration of trading an “in-the-hand” top 3 pick for a veteran. Using the draft history at ProSportsTransactions.com, the last time that happened was 1986.
In 1986, the Cavaliers traded Roy Hinson and cash to the 76ers, for the first overall pick, which they used on Brad Daugherty. Hinson was a 24-year-old forward who was coming off averaging 19.6 points a game in his third season. He would last only a year and a half in Philadelphia before being traded to the Nets.
If we move it outside the top 3, the most recent veteran for top pick move was the Timberwolves trading Randy Foye and Mike Miller to the Wizards in 2009, for 5th overall (Ricky Rubio) and several players.
History is full of interesting stories and teams trading picks that became future stars. It is rare, though, for a team to trade the pick after the lottery position is set, to get a veteran star. Most teams picking that high realize they are more than one player away, in year one, from being a true contender.