The Mavericks have acquired a 2024 first-round pick from the Thunder in exchange for a future draft pick swap, both teams announced today. Oklahoma City will have the ability to swap its own 2028 first-round selection for Dallas’ ’28 first-rounder.
The Mavs, in turn, will flip that newly acquired ’24 first-round pick to the Wizards in the Daniel Gafford/Richaun Holmes trade, as was previously reported.
The pick that will head to Washington by way of Dallas will be the second-least favorable of the Clippers’, Thunder’s, Rockets’, and Jazz’s 2024 first-rounders.
The Thunder projected to have multiple picks in the first round of the 2024 draft and were unlikely to use them all, so they’ll push one of those assets down the road, betting on their odds to place ahead of the Mavs in the standings in 2028 and take advantage of that swap.
Conversely, the 2024 first-round pick is more valuable to the Wizards than a 2028 swap would have been, since they’re in the rebuilding process and want to add young talent sooner rather than later.