Sam Presti was thought to be the undisputed champion of draft pick recovery, but Danny Ainge came to remind him that he was an expert at it too.
In Boston, we remember that he had recovered a slew of them during the famous exchange of Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett to the Nets, and having just arrived at the Jazz, it took him one summer to recover eight! All in just three trades (Royce O’Neale, Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell)…and most of them are “unprotected”. In addition, he negotiated the possibility of exchanging three choices (“swap”).
Without forgetting of course, the two rookies Ochai Agbaji and Walker Kessler, 14th and 22nd choice of the 2022 Draft, and six players: Malik Beasley, Jared Vanderbilt, Lauri Markkanen, Collin Sexton, Talen Horton-Tucker and Stanley Johnson (later arrived in exchange of Pat Beverley).
For the Draft, here is what it looks like until 2029 for the first rounds.
- Draft 2023 : unprotected first three rounds (Utah, Minnesota and the lowest choice between Houston, Brooklyn or Philadelphia)
- Draft 2024 : no pick (traded to Thunder on Derrick Favors transfer)
- Draft 2025 : one protected choice (OKC, 1 to 10), two unprotected choices (Minnesota and Cleveland)
- Draft 2026 : exchange of choice with Minnesota and Cleveland
- Draft 2027 : first three laps unprotected (Utah, Minnesota and Cleveland)
- Draft 2028 : exchange of choice with Cleveland
- Draft 2029 : two unprotected first rounds (Utah and Cleveland), one protected first round (Minnesota, 1 to 5)
