There is always a lot of anticipation for the NBA Draft.
It is a transformative day for all the prospects who get selected. Making the NBA and joining a new team is a dream come true.
It is often a transformative day for teams. Not merely the teams drafting what they hope is their next star at the top of the draft. But also for teams pondering their next moves and what comes in the offseason, the draft is supposed to force movement.
That is naturally what deadlines do. They force action. And the Draft is usually an event that forces action around the league.
This year was different.
There were trades circling the Draft. The Minnesota Timberwolves dumped Julius Randle to the Brooklyn Nets in a three-team trade that also sent Nicolas Claxton to the Chicago Bulls. The Miami Heat and Milwaukee Bucks finally completed the Giannis Antetokounmpo trade.
But the first round of the Draft featured no other current players changing teams. The four trades reported or completed on Tuesday after the Draft began all involved other draft picks -- including the odyssey the Memphis Grizzlies took to end the night with Karim Lopez and five second-round picks.
This became the first Draft since 2018 that featured no trades involving players on draft night or reported after the draft began. It is a rare sight.
Certainly, Orlando Magic fans were curious what the Magic might do with the pressure of the Draft. It seems like they need to make one trade to add a veteran, with how few free agency avenues they have and only the 46th pick in the Draft to add to the roster.
That trade never materialized.
The Magic let the first night of the Draft pass without any action. Even as potential players they might have picked, like Baylor's Cameron Carr (No. 24 to the Los Angeles Lakers) or Chris Cenac Jr. (No. 27 to the Boston Celtics), dropped down the draft board, the team seemed to hold its water for now.
The question around the league is not if but when those deals start coming.
What this all suggests is that the league is working under a slightly different calendar now. And things are about to get busy.
Why no trades during the Draft?
There probably needs more data to be compiled year over year, but the Draft is certainly more valuable than it has ever been. First-round picks especially.
Rookie contracts are cost-controlled and always well below market. So teams that are dealing with cap troubles or living above the salary cap can always use rookies to supplement their roster.
Indeed, for teams above the salary cap and dealing with apron restrictions, rookie contracts are essential for the chance to get good production from cheap salaries. That is also what supplements the roster when players become unaffordable or a team needs to cut salary.
Getting the draft right is more important than ever. And teams value draft picks far more than ever.
That is why the big trades like the one the Orlando Magic executed to acquire Desmond Bane took so many picks -- in addition to attaching a first-round pick for the Memphis Grizzlies to take on the contracts of Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Cole Anthony. Teams want to hoard picks for those big deals because of how vital the draft is.
Trades like that may not happen very often again because it puts teams in such a hole with their future draft capital.
This is one of the big reasons it feels important for the Magic to get the 46th pick right when they come up to pick on Wednesday. The Magic must get rookies to supplement the roster with no other real avenue to add to the team -- the Magic only have the taxpayer mid-level exception and minimum contracts to spend.
If Orlando heads into the second apron next summer, the only contracts they can offer are minimum deals and rookie deals.
Next year's first round pick will become doubly important to hit on because the Magic only get a first-round pick every other year until 2030. And the Magic will likely be in the second apron next summer.
Teams are dancing around the aprons now. And the new tanking reforms likely made teams want to hold onto their future Draft picks, unsure of how the new lottery will work. Or what their seasons may end up looking like.
Trades will happen
The fact may be now that the NBA's transaction calendar is shifting with all of these apron restrictions and teams weighing their financial obligations in the long term more and more.
The Draft is being siloed as its own thing. Then comes the brief trade window before free agency. Or maybe the trade window is designed to supplement free agency.
There will surely be some moves between the draft's completion on Wednesday night and the beginning of free agency on Tuesday night. Teams will be working to get under the cap and maneuver themselves to free up the space for whatever free agency plans they have.
The Orlando Magic have signaled publicly that they will stick to their starting five. They want to see if a new coach and better health unlock what was missing this past season.
That severely limits the kind of deals the Magic are pursuing, leaving them to nibble at the edges with smaller salaries. As a first apron team, Orlando cannot take on more money than it sends out in a trade.
The Draft is always the first piece of the puzzle in the offseason. What Orlando ends up doing with the 46th pick likely will preview what the team believes it can do with trades and free agency, even if something is not completed yet.
But trades will happen. That is the nature of the NBA. It may exist now without the deadline pressure of the draft. But there will be activity.
Orlando will surely have something in mind to help improve their roster or shake some things up. And this draft and free agency will supplement that.
But the first round of this year's Draft did not spur any movement around the league. Outside of the Giannis Antetokounmpo trade, everyone held their water.
That will not last. This is the NBA. Trades are coming.
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