NBA Draft 2022 Trade Tracker: Full details and grades for every deal
By Josh Hill
It’s NBA Draft night which means the trades winds will be whirling and deals will be made that alter the future of franchises all over the league.
Like a tree falling in the forest when no one is around to hear it, is it truly the NBA Draft without an onslaught of trades?
Perhaps more than the fashionable suits and the actual players being drafted, few things are synonymous with the NBA Draft than trades that happen throughout the night of the event. Due to league rules, no trade is actually official until after the draft is concluded, but the safest bet in all of sports is that at least one or two names called at the podium tonight will not be playing for the team making the selection.
The question isn’t if a draft night trade will happen it’s what the impact of it will be?
Charlotte struck a draft night trade in 1996 that sent their first round pick to the Los Angeles Lakers for star veteran Vlade Divac. The only problem was that first round pick was Kobe Bryant. In 1998 the Dallas Mavericks traded Pat Garrity to the Milwaukee Bucks for the rights to Dirk Nowitzki, and in 1987 the Chicago Bulls traded the draft rights of Olden Polynice and a future first-round and a second-round pick to the Sonics for the rights to Scottie Pippen.
All of those trades moved future Hall of Famers to teams they’d help win championships for.
Most recently the Mavericks and Hawks swapped Trae Young and Luka Donicic, moves that carried both teams to Conference Finals appearances within the first few years of making the deal. So the question isn’t whether or not we’ll see a trade tonight it’s how will we be looking back on it in half a decade and beyond?
NBA Draft 2022: Tracking every trade and grading every deal
Note: All NBA Draft trades will be listed below after they have been announced and made official. Be sure to check back all weekend for the latest trade details and grades. Only trades that occur during the three-day window will be listed, no pre-draft trades will appear here.
NBA Trade: Knicks get multiple first-round picks for Ousmane Dieng
NBA Trade: Knicks trade for Jalen Duren to salary dump Kemba Walker
Lol. That’s the grade. Like, it’s impossible to overstate how absolutely on-brand this is for the Knicks to make a trade for a lottery pick and then trade it away to dump $8 million to clear space for free agency.
Because that worked out so well the last time they tried it.
NBA Trade: Timberwolves offload No. 19 pick to Grizzlies
NBA Trade: Grizzlies acquire Danny Green from 76ers
NBA Trade: Rockets acquire No. 29 overall pick from Timberwolves
This trade completed the Christian Wood trade that Dallas and Houston agreed upon earlier in the week. Minnesota sent the No. 29 pick — which it acquired from Memphis — to the Mavericks who will send it to the Rockets as part of the Wood trade. That piece will be Kentucky guard TyTy Washington.
NBA Trade: Rewind to that Knicks chaos
Okay, let’s pause and rewind to the absolute chaos that the Knicks gave us on draft night. Tim Bontemps broke it down like we’re 5-years old to explain just exactly what the heck New York did on Thursday night.
What the Knicks did tonight:
— Tim Bontemps (@TimBontemps) June 24, 2022
NYK trades 11th pick to OKC
OKC trades 3 firsts (23 DEN, DET, WASH) to NYK
NYK then trades 23 DEN, 4 seconds to CHA for 13th pick
NYK then trade 13th pick & Kemba Walker to DET for MKE's 25 first
NYK trades 11, Kemba, 4 2nds & gets 3 future 1sts