With only days remaining before 2019 free agents can be traded, the Andre Iguodala sweepstakes can begin to heat up in earnest. Virtually every contender in either conference could find a use for one of the league's best wing defenders, and there is no shortage of pursuers, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic. He lists the Los Angeles Clippers, Dallas Mavericks, Houston Rockets and Denver Nuggets as teams that have looked into the former Finals MVP.
What would Iguodala cost? According to Charania, "the Grizzlies have already received a protected 2024 first-round draft pick for taking on Iguodala from the Warriors, and now they're searching for a similar asset in a trade."
This presents a complication for virtually every team listed here, as they have all traded future first-round picks in prior deals. The Stepien Rule prevents any team from dealing first-round picks in consecutive seasons, and teams are only allowed to trade picks seven years or less into the future. That makes constructing a deal difficult. Here are the restrictions each of those teams are dealing with:
- The Clippers owe first-round picks to the Thunder in 2022, 2024 and 2026, along with swaps in 2023 and 2025. The only first-round pick they can trade is in 2020.
- The Mavericks owe first-round picks to the Knicks in 2021 and 2023. This means they can trade either their 2025 or 2026 pick.
- The Rockets owe first-round picks to the Thunder in 2024 and 2026, meaning any pick prior to 2022 can be traded. However, swap rights have been granted to the Thunder on picks in 2021 and 2025, so protecting those picks becomes far more complicated.
- The Nuggets owe their 2020 first-round pick to the Thunder, meaning they can trade any pick from 2022 onward.
Not listed here are the Lakers, thought by many to be Iguodala's first choice of a new destination. That is because they do not have a purely tradeable first-round pick. They owe two picks to the New Orleans Pelicans as part of the Anthony Davis trade: one in 2021, and one in either 2024 or 2025, with the choice being made by New Orleans. That 2021 pick makes their selections in 2020 and 2022 untradeable, while the dual-debt of 2024 and 2025 also locks off 2023 and 2026 until one of those picks is actually conveyed. That fills out the entire seven-year period of tradeable picks.
With so many teams in the mix lacking tradeable picks, Charania's terminology is important. A "similar asset" could represent a player whose value is similar to that of a pick. Every team involved has at least a player or two that might entice the Grizzlies in place of a pick. It's just a question of how eager those teams would be to part with that player. Yes, Iguodala would help the Rockets, for example, but would he be worth giving up on a promising prospect like Danuel House? That is for them to decide.
Salary constraints remain a major component of this saga as well. Any team acquiring Iguodala would have to send out $12,185,185 in salary simply to match his deal. Few contenders have that sort of money lying around. Most of it is used on players deemed essential. As badly as the Lakers might want Iguodala, for instance, they wouldn't give up Danny Green's salary to get him.
The floodgates are about to open. An Iguodala trade becomes far more feasible the moment Dec. 15 comes around. But even when it does, any team hoping to acquire Iguodala will still have hoops to jump through.
