The Boon of the 'Second Draft' Players
Six guys on rookie contracts could see a major spike in production in their new homes as they look to turnaround their careers
Over the last few years, this idea of a ‘second draft’ for a player has taken root. In essence, it’s just about young players finding new homes which might be more conducive to their success. It’s difficult to know, for a 20 to 23-year-old, how much of their struggles are due to the environment they’ve been developed in within the NBA. Taking a flier on one of these players, when value isn’t as high and the cost of acquiring them won’t be a major to-do, can often be a really smart move for a franchise.
The craziest trade deadline in history went down this week and saw several NBA players on their rookie contracts change teams. Some are guys who have struggled to carve out consistent roles with their teams, while others have gotten minutes and not really cashed in to help their team win games. Now in a new environment, each player has the chance to make something happen.
We take a look at five players still on their rookie deals who found new homes after the deadline, what their trades say about them, and how they can find success in the future with their team.
Mo Bamba, Los Angeles Lakers
After seemingly years of chatter about the Orlando Magic wanting to move on from Bamba, the deal finally took root on Thursday. Mo Bamba was dealt from the Magic to the Los Angeles Lakers, a team with a few big men already in their rotation. Bamba is by far the biggest, though, as the rest of the Lakers big bodies are hybrid 4s and 5s like Wenyen Gabriel, Rui Hachimura, Jarred Vanderbilt, or Anthony Davis.
Bamba’s rim protection and overall size should get him into the rotation with the Lakers during the regular season. However, we’ve seen the Lakers be at their playoff best when playing Davis at the 5 and LeBron James at the 4, surrounding them with more skill and shooting. That might serve as a long-term roadblock to Bamba’s heavy minutes in the rotation, but he still has a role to play in Los Angeles.
For Bamba to maximize his minutes, he’ll need to play really solid defense and be a credible roll threat. The Lakers are somewhat small in their backcourt and don’t exactly have great perimeter defensive talent. If Bamba can handle providing rim protection so that their offensive-minded guards can stay on the floor and do their thing, he’ll help this team greatly.
It’s far too soon to know whether the Lakers are going to value re-signing Bamba this summer. Trading for his Bird rights was a move that allows a team like them to go over the cap and retain him, something they’ll need to do if they plan on re-signing D’Angelo Russell to a long-term contract too. The fourth-year pro out of Texas has to earn his spot with really solid play, and he’s got a great deal of upside to do that based on his overall talent.
Saddiq Bey, Atlanta Hawks
It’s rare to talk about a guy who averaged 16.1 points during his second NBA season as a ‘second draft’ guy. Bey was one of our favorites when coming out of Villanova and he instantly garnered raw production when drafted by the Detroit Pistons. After a really strong rookie season, Bey has sought a larger and larger role in the offense, moving away from the potential 3-and-D wing we saw him as out of college and more to a ball-stopping, wanna-be mid-range assassin the last eighteen months. As a rookie, Bey took 66.6% of his shots from deep and had 49% of his field goals assisted. This year with the Pistons, those numbers are drastically different: 48.3% of his shots from 3 and only 33.3% of his field goals assisted.
By trading for Bey, the Atlanta Hawks are hoping they can morph the third-year pro into the rookie version of himself. Atlanta already has Trae Young and Dejounte Murray to be the guys running their offense; they need spot-up shooting on the wings with defensive versatility. Bey, AJ Griffin, Bogdan Bogdanovic, DeAndre Hunter… there’s now a hefty wing rotation in Atlanta, especially for a team that likes to play two bigs in John Collins and Clint Capela.
It’s hard to know just how many minutes will be available for Saddiq, considering how well Griffin has played as a rookie and the three-man frontcourt with Collins, Capela, and Onyeka Okongwu might prevent them from playing smaller. If anything, this deal should be a bit of a wakeup call for Saddiq that he needs to get back to playing within a motion scheme or being more of a catch-and-shoot threat if he wants to make an impact on a good team.
Bones Hyland, Los Angeles Clippers
We’ve been talking for months about how good Bones Hyland has been in his second season as a pro. He’s scoring the ball at a good clip and had rejuvenated the offensive potency of an otherwise stagnant Denver Nuggets second unit. Over the last few weeks, some quotes and subtle shots across the bow from the Nuggets vets have been directed at Hyland, specifically about how there’s no room for ego in their championship pursuit.
Bones is very good and a promising young player. But the jump that he would have to make from ‘good bench scorer’ to ‘30 minutes-per-game guard’ is a drastic one. Based on his playmaking, defense, and overall consistency, it’s not a leap he’s ready to make. The Nuggets dealt him for two second-round picks on Thursday, not because they no longer believe that Bones can get there someday, but because if Bones thinks he should be there now, there’s a realism problem that could bring down the Nuggets locker room.
Now with the Clippers, Hyland should have a fairly similar role. Terance Mann will likely be the starting point guard next to Paul George and Kawhi Leonard. When one or both of the stars sit, Hyland will have his chance to cook and do what he does best: create offense. It’s a good value bargain for the Clippers, taking a flier on a young, talented scorer for a team that needs second-unit scoring.
Bones is an incredible kid with a tremendous backstory, a vivacious personality, and a desire to just go out there and hoop. You want to root for people like that to succeed, and after the Clippers had interest in him on draft night, it very well may be that Los Angeles is the place he needs to be.
Matisse Thybulle and Cam Reddish, Portland Trail Blazers
In his fourth season with the Philadelphia 76ers, Matisse Thybulle was playing a career-low 12.1 minutes per game. The lack of shooting progression (only 32.5% for his career on extremely low volume) made him difficult to trust offensively spacing the floor around James Harden and Joel Embiid’s pick-and-roll attack. But on a per-minute basis, Thybulle remains one of the most impactful defenders in the NBA. He’s a steals maven shooting passing lanes and a terrific shot blocker for a guard.
Where Thybulle can wear out his welcome is that he constantly gambles to make those plays happen; if he misses, he leaves his teammates out to dry a bit. He’s getting better in those areas, but without the offensive acumen to stay on the court for long stretches, the margin for error isn’t there to be a renegade on defense.
Portland could provide a better opportunity for him. Minutes should be more available on the wings, especially following the Josh Hart trade. He’s in a contract year and should get the opportunity to be a defensive stopper over the next two months. He has a lot riding on this.
For the Blazers, it’s exactly the right type of roll of the dice they should take. Get a young-ish player (Thybulle turns 26 next month) and see if he is good enough on defense to be a wing rotation guy next to Damian Lillard and Anfernee Simons long-term.
Of course, Thybulle will have to beat out Cam Reddish for those wing minutes. Reddish is the offensive iteration of Matisse: he’s really talented and puts up numbers when he plays heavy minutes, but hasn’t figured out how to scale down his play into a smaller role. There’s far too much upside for Reddish not to be given an opportunity to prove himself, he just needs a team where the minutes are there.
Both guys are good individual moves for the Blazers to take in a year where they aren’t going to win a playoff series but need to get to that point quickly next year. The question is whether the internal competition for minutes between the two — and the presences of other young wings like Nassir Little, Shaedon Sharpe, and Keon Johnson — further muddies their pathway to minutes.
James Wiseman, Detroit Pistons
James Wiseman has played 1098 NBA minutes. He played 70 minutes as a freshman in college. Over the last four basketball seasons, he’s logged 1168 minutes — an average of 292 minutes per year.
It’s so hard to know how much those interruptions have altered his development, or if the damage done by missing that much time over the formative years can even be made up for. The Pistons are betting on the tools that Wiseman brings to the table and want to investigate for themselves how he’ll perform in consistent minutes. We’ve heard rumors that Wiseman might start in Detroit, and based on his college footage, we still see insane raw tools that Wiseman can tap into:
Defensively, Wiseman has to be able to provide something for the Pistons. His defensive upside was so high coming out of Memphis, but the learning curve from high school to the NBA is steep at his position. Without the reps over the last four years to work out those kinks, this could be a rough process for Wiseman if the defensive responsibility is lumped on his shoulders.
I like the gamble for Detroit… under the right internal circumstances. Few players possess the type of switchability upside with real rim protection traits in the way Wiseman does. He’s a great lob threat with vertical spacing, a huge benefit to Cade Cunningham and Jaden Ivey long-term.
The problem is that the Pistons just drafted a center with those same traits in Jalen Duren. Duren is younger, has performed better throughout his NBA career already, and likely cannot share the floor with Wiseman in a playoff setting long-term.
I can simultaneously like the flier on Wiseman but dislike the idea that figuring out Wiseman could come at the expense of consistent minutes for Duren. The Pistons have to be careful not to fall in love with the shiny new toy when they already have a pretty good one on the roster.