Nets defer Sixers' first-round pick until 2023

The Nets have deferred the first-round picked owed to them by the Sixers until 2023, sources tell ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link). June 1 was the deadline for Brooklyn to inform the NBA of its decision, Wojarowski notes.

Philadelphia confirmed the news that it will control the No. 23 pick in the 2022 NBA draft, tweets Gina Mizell of The Philadelphia Inquirer. The Sixers have the ability to trade the pick starting June 23, which is draft night, per ESPN’s Bobby Marks (via Twitter). However, due to conditional protections on future picks owed to the Thunder and Nets, the ’22 first-rounder is the lone first the Sixers can deal away, as Marks relays.

The Nets acquired the pick with the option of pushing it back until ’23 as part of the trade that sent Ben Simmons, Seth Curry, Andre Drummond, and two first-round picks — ’22 or ’23 and ’27 (top-eight protected) — to Brooklyn in exchange for James Harden. Philadelphia’s ’23 first-round pick, which the Nets now officially control, is unprotected, so Brooklyn’s front office is hoping for a down season from the Sixers — assuming the Nets don’t trade it for immediate help this summer.

Although the Nets no longer have a pick in the upcoming draft, they still have the ability to purchase a second-round pick from another team, according to Marks (Twitter link). Brooklyn sent the maximum amount of cash allowed in 2021-22 to Detroit in a prior trade, but that will replenish once the new league year begins on July 1, so a theoretical trade wouldn’t be finalized until that point.

The Sixers also don’t control a second-rounder at the moment, but they still have $3,785,000 to buy one from another team, if they so choose (assuming, of course, that other teams are willing to deal them away, which is quite common in the second round).

The full 2022 NBA draft order can be found right here.