A Flurry Of Trades Happened Involving Eight Teams Before The Second Round Of The 2024 NBA Draft

When the NBA split the Draft into two days, the idea was to give teams time to reset and explore all of their options for making picks and trades after the first round — and also to get another night (or, this year, afternoon) of TV coverage for ESPN.

The thought was, the second round goes so quickly that teams don’t really have time to talk through deals and having a full day between would create more movement and opportunity to get trades done. That seemed to be the case on Thursday, as prior to the start of the second round of the 2024 NBA Draft, we saw four trades involving eight teams get worked out, with players and picks exchanging hands.

Timberwolves-Pistons Trade

The first trade to get done saw Minnesota send Wendell Moore Jr. and the No. 37 pick to Detroit for the No. 53 pick, as the Wolves drafted a Moore replacement late in the first round with Terrence Shannon Jr. and wasn’t going to have much of a role for him this year. Detroit got to move up 16 spots to closer to the top of the second round, while getting a chance to see what Moore could provide them off the bench.

Thunder-Warriors Trade

The second deal saw the Thunder acquire another second round pick at 52 overall from Golden State, who take on Lindy Waters III (who had a team option picked up to facilitate the deal).

Hawks-Rockets Trade

The third trade of the day saw the Hawks ship former first round pick A.J. Griffin to Houston for the No. 44 overall pick. Griffin had fallen completely out of the rotation last year and the Hawks were able to dip out of the tax with the trade, while Houston takes a flyer on Griffin regaining his form as a shooter from his rookie year in a change of scenery.

Raptors-Kings Trade

Finally, we had the Kings flip Davion Mitchell and Sasha Vezenkov and the No. 45 overall pick to Toronto for Jalen McDaniels. The Kings get some money off their books and will hope McDaniels can bolster their wing rotation and give them a defensive lift there, while the Raptors add a defensive minded guard in Mitchell and Vezenkov was apparently not happy in Sacramento and gets a change of scenery.