Phx-Suns.Net

A bit off topic, but I have come to really hate traded pick swaps. It makes everything so complicated, especially when the swaps get re-traded. It reminds me of the subprime mortgage crisis of 2008 where banks would sell mortgages and resell them over and over.

I worry that it basically leads to a nullification of the (important IMO) Stepien Rule that blocks teams from trading their 1st round draft pick in consecutive years. I know some folks dislike the Stepien Rule (let 'em do what they want, even if they hang themselves, they say). But I strongly agree and support restrictions on GMs and owners to prevent them from doing stupid and short-sighted things that screw over their teams for years and years to come.

Now with all the pick swaps, you can essentially trade your pick every season. Sure, you will get *A* pick, but it won't be *your* pick, so you no longer receive any benefit from a bad season. That sucking / benefit relationship is crucial to the parity of the NBA and is really the only weapon for a horrible team to rebuild. The Suns have become the poster child franchise for how easy it is in the current CBA to completely destroy not only your team's present but also its future for almost a decade out.

I wish the next CBA would just ban future pick swaps being part of trades, or at a bare minimum, ban trading already-swapped picks. Or something. Get this complex labyrinthine garbage out of here. Call it the "Mat Ishbia is a stupid fuckhead rule", or just the Ishbia Rule for short.

INFORMER wrote: ↑

Thu Jun 19, 2025 7:50 pm

Charlotte ultimately.

The Suns first traded the rights to a pick swap of their 2026 1st rounder to Washington. Then the Suns traded rights to a 2026 1st round pick swap to Orlando. So that meant that Washington would first have the right to swap picks with Phoenix. Whatever pick Phoenix would have after that would then be subject to being swapped with Orlando's, at Orlando's discretion.

This past season, the Suns traded their 2026 pick to Charlotte. Orlando the traded a 2026 first round pick to Memphis.

So that means after Washington and Orlando exercise/decline to pick swap, whatever pick the Suns have left over goes to Charlotte.

Whatever Orlando does with their pick swap option, they will send a 1st rounder to Memphis; it could the Suns' pick, Washington's pick, or Orlando's own pick.

One other complexity: Washington owes a 1st rounder to NY if it falls outside of the top 8 in 2026. If they are conveying a 1st rounder to NY, then Washington cannot swap with Phoenix.

Absurd

Well, fuck me

So most likely Memphis ends up picking in our slot next year(assuming they don’t trade it)…but Washington would actually be the team we need to get the pick from if we full on tanked…except we’d run the risk of them finishing 10th and that pick not swapping so it would go to memphis(through Orlando). So long story short, unless we acquire both the wizards pick(1-9) and the Memphis pick, we can’t guarantee picking in our own draft slot next year.

Safest move would be to get the Memphis pick and then at worst you pick 9th(assuming you tanked to make the suns pick top 9).

What a freaking mess.

I hope there won't be a quiz on all that.