New Orleans Pelicans among NBA teams with most future first-round draft picks

Over time, the NBA has started to value the draft, and, as a result, draft picks, more and more. A couple of decades ago, it wasn't uncommon to see first-round selections thrown into trades willy-nilly in exchange for borderline rotation players. Sometimes multiple picks would be cobbled together to deal for a player who wasn't even an All-Star.

Actually, we don't even have to go back that far to find an example of a team selling off multiple future first-rounders in exchange for a mid-tier role player. In 2020, the Portland Trail Blazers sent two firsts and Trevor Ariza to the Houston Rockets for a slight upgrade in Robert Covington.

Nowadays, teams have come around and begun valuing their first-round selections much more highly. Not only does a deep collection of picks give a team more chances to land a cornerstone in the draft, it also gives general managers more ammunition to land a difference-maker via trade. The trade price for a disgruntled star has gone up recently, so any team looking to deal for one has to ensure that their cupboard is stocked with the future draft capital necessary to make the swap.

The Pelicans war chest has dwindled but remains among the NBA's most robust

A couple of years ago, the New Orleans Pelicans boasted perhaps the largest collection of assets in the NBA, with only the Oklahoma City Thunder holding a valid challenge for the title. Today, after several moves including the Dejounte Murray trade from earlier this offseason, their war chest has shrunk, but it remains among the NBA's deepest still.

Bobby Marks recently outlined each NBA's teams current portfolio of future first-round draft picks. The Brooklyn Nets clocked in with the most tradable firsts and the most first-rounders overall, with 12 and 15 respectively. The Oklahoma City Thunder were next with 10 tradable firsts and 13 first-round picks total. The Utah Jazz and San Antonio Spurs were next with nine tradable first-rounders each, with the Jazz getting the edge with 13 picks overall and the Spurs with 12.

After those four teams, the tradable first-rounders among the remaining franchises dropped significantly, with the Pelicans next in line with just six tradable picks in the first round. After New Orleans, there's a small flurry of teams with five movable first-round selections, including the Orlando Magic, Atlanta Hawks, and Houston Rockets.

Marks gave the Rockets the edge over the Pellies in terms of first-round trade assets due to his opinion of the value of each team's picks. He felt that Houston's pick swap with the Brooklyn Nets in 2027 and the two most favorable picks in 2029 between their own selection, the Dallas Mavericks', and the Phoenix Suns' were likely to be great assets due to the trending direction of the Nets and the Suns.

Marks is likely surmising that the Nets and the Suns are more likely to be bottom-feeder teams in 2027 and 2029 then the Milwaukee Bucks, considering that New Orleans owns the Bucks' first-rounders in both 2025 and 2027, given that they fall outside of the top four.

Of course, that's Marks's personal opinion. An NBA GM might feel differently if the Bucks' 2025 and 2027 firsts were on the table in a deal.

Considering that the Pelicans just made an All-Star acquisition by trading for Dejounte Murray, it's nice to know that they still have leverage over the majority of the league in terms of future draft assets. Whether or not Vice President David Griffin will dip further into his war chest to continually upgrade the roster for this season remains to be seen. New Orleans does have quite a few roster needs left, an ill-fitting, potentially disgruntled star in Brandon Ingram, and a small collection of highly valuable role players. It wouldn't be a surprise to see another blockbuster trade come out of the BIg Easy this year.