Philadelphia 76ers troll Sacramento Kings over pick swap
By John Buhler
The Philadelphia 76ers won the 2016 NBA Draft Lottery and will not exercise their rights to a pick swap with the Sacramento Kings. Twitter told us so.
The Philadelphia 76ers are not going to exercise their rights to a first round pick swap with the Sacramento Kings in the 2016 NBA Draft for one obvious reason: Philadelphia won the 2016 NBA Draft Lottery and Sacramento will end up picking seventh.
That didn’t stop Sacramento from trying to persuade Philadelphia to engage in this highly one-sided pick swap via Twitter on Wednesday.
Naturally, Philadelphia turned down the Kings.
.@SacramentoKings New phone who dis
— Philadelphia 76ers (@sixers) May 18, 2016
While Philadelphia could technically enact the rights to a pick swap with the Kings once in the next four years, assuming Sacramento gets in the top 10, it’s not advantageous for the 76ers to use it this year to fall back from No. 1 to No. 7.
In a series of odd trades with first the Chicago Bulls and later the 76ers, Sacramento has found itself in not being in full control of its first round pick for potentially the next four drafts. Had Sacramento received a better lottery pick than the 76ers, Philadelphia would have swapped picks without hesitation. Because of the J.J. Hickson for Omri Casspi trade, had the Kings’ pick fallen out of the top 10, that pick would then belong to the Bulls as it is a top-10 protected pick.
Where it stands now, Philadelphia has the rights to swap first round picks with the Kings in 2017 if it is in the top 10, otherwise, it goes to Chicago. In 2018, if the Kings’ pick falls out of the top 10, Philadelphia gets it no matter what. Finally in 2019, if the 76ers don’t get the Kings’ No. 11-30 pick, Philadelphia will get Sacramento’s first round pick no matter what.
It’s astonishing how some of the NBA’s most dysfunctional organizations like Sacramento, the Brooklyn Nets, and the New York Knicks have completely sacrificed their future with blatant disregard to their draft pick rights. Teams like Philadelphia, the Boston Celtics, and the Denver Nuggets will continue to reap the benefits of other teams’ poorly run front offices.
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