No room for cold feet in this draft
Sean Deveney /


Magic management was scheduled to meet with Tracy McGrady this week, presumably to listen to him urge the team to trade its No. 1 overall pick.



At No. 2, the Clippers don't want prep forward Dwight Howard because they have Elton Brand. With the third pick, the Bulls are not much interested in bringing in yet another raw teenager (Luol Deng). The Bobcats need to build an entire roster and would be happy to move down from No. 4 for multiple picks. The Wizards need big men but can't find any worthy of the No. 5 pick. At No. 6 are the Hawks, who also hold the 17th pick and want Howard.


The Clippers' acquisition of Elton Brand is a rare exception to the don't-trade-lottery-picks rule.
Barry Gossage/Getty Images


I could keep going. SuperSonics general manager Rick Sund said during last week's predraft camp in Chicago that he is "not married" to his No. 12 pick. If that's the case, Sund is not alone. Get out the pomade, the Trans Am and the Old Spice, because when it comes to marrying picks in this draft, every NBA personnel exec is a bachelor.


Not to rain on this swingin' parade, but general managers, especially ones with picks in the lottery, should think twice about moving those picks. This is a young and uncertain draft class, which is why teams are eager to opt out of it altogether. But know this: Trading lottery picks for players hardly ever works.


There have been eight such trades in the past eight years, and only one worked out in favor of the team that traded the pick and got the player — the Clippers getting Elton Brand for the No. 2 pick (Tyson Chandler) and Brian Skinner in 2001. The Raptors' 1999 trade of the No. 5 pick (Jonathan Bender) for Antonio Davis could fit, too, but Davis was declining when the Raptors got him, and Bender could yet pan out. Call that one even.


Of the six remaining trades, two were forced by the draft picks — Steve Francis in 1999 and Kobe Bryant in 1996 — so, naturally, the team giving up the picks was unfairly heisted. One was altogether useless — Ervin Johnson for Danny Fortson in 1997 — so we'll ignore it. That leaves three lottery picks traded for players in the past eight drafts, and the results have not been pretty.



2002

The player: Antonio McDyess to the Knicks.


The pick: No. 7 (Nene) to the Nuggets.


The extras: The Knicks got the rights to Frank Williams and a 2003 second-rounder; the Nuggets got Marcus Camby and Mark Jackson.


The result: This deal was so Lopsided, the L is capitalized. McDyess has only one knee, and Nene is one of the better young big men in the league. Ah, the Scott Layden years.



2001

The player: Shareef Abdur-Rahim to the Hawks.


The pick: No. 3 (Pau Gasol) to the Grizzlies.


The extras: The Hawks got the rights to Jamaal Tinsley (traded to Indiana on the same day); the Grizzlies got Lorenzen Wright and Brevin Knight.


The result: Maybe Gasol is only slightly better than Abdur-Rahim, but he is bigger and four years younger. Throw in Wright and Knight, and this one was a dud for the Hawks.



1999

The player: Horace Grant to the Sonics.


The pick: No. 13 (Corey Maggette) to the Magic.


The extras: The Sonics got two future second-rounders; the Magic got Dale Ellis, Don MacLean and Billy Owens and later moved all three.


The result: Sonics president Wally Walker said at the time the Sonics could not get anyone useful with the 13th pick. Hmm ... who is more useful, Maggette or Grant?


Layden and Pete Babcock, who engineered the Abdur-Rahim trade for the Hawks, are out of work. No matter what you think of the Bender-Davis deal, former Raptors boss Glen Grunwald is jobless, too. There's a lesson here for trade-happy G.M.s in the lottery: If you're not married to that pick, you better get on your knee and propose.