NBA Draft: Grades for all 15 teams in the Eastern Conference
Eastern Conference NBA Draft Grades: Teams without a pick
Two teams did not make a single pick on Thursday night. Interestingly enough, it was the two Atlantic teams that traded with each other at the NBA Trade Deadline, the Brooklyn Nets and the Philadelphia 76ers. The Nets had the option to either take this year’s Sixers pick or defer it to the future, and they did the latter, giving Philly the chance to pick at 23.
The 76ers spent the past week aggressively shopping that pick, and they found a taker in the Memphis Grizzlies. They sent injured wing Danny Green and the 23rd pick to the Grizzlies for ace defender De’Anthony Melton, who is on a reasonable contract and fits a need. He isn’t an on-ball creator, but the Sixers have plenty of those. It was good value for Philadelphia.
The Brookyln Nets sent their own pick to the Houston Rockets from the James Harden deal, so watching the Rockets take LSU’s Tari Eason at pick No. 17 surely hurt. As a thin roster trying to find usable, inexpensive pieces to play alongside their stars, the loss of so much draft capital is painful.
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Neither team had a second-round pick. Brooklyn sent theirs out in the Jeremy Lin salary dump to the Atlanta Hawks back in 2018, and it pinged around the league through a complicated series of transactions, eventually becoming Ismael Kamagate. Philadelphia’s second-round pick was owned by Miami and was forfeited due to their tampering charges last summer.