Originally Posted by
Pelicanidae
Sure, but if they actually do like Ja then why mess around? If they want a guard, and they actually like Ja, and he's there and he's a guard, why not just draft him instead of hoping that they're in a position to draft a different guard next year? Especially, if as you say, they're hoping that they won't even have their pick next year because they want it to convey to Boston. Therefore in order to actually have picks, they'll need to take them from NY, which is exactly my point: to get the #2 pick, NY will need to ship all their assets out to Memphis instead of to us. I'm not saying it's inconceivable, they could do that, but it's a fairly long shot.
AD is going to be traded, if he gets traded, either before the draft or on draft night. You can't pull the whole ''the 1st can be the 2020 NYC pick cause they can trade after the draft'', because the AD trade will be done before the draft or on the draft night itself so that the picks can be made for the Pels. The only way that would be possible would be as a multi-team trade, which makes things far more difficult in regards to actually balancing who gets what without anyone feeling robbed.
''So don't just assume they're going to trade Conley before the season''. I'm not assuming. They actively tried to ship Conley already. It's not a guarantee that they will succeed in moving him, but we already know it's something they have actively been attempting to do. It's not an assumption, it's a commentary on actual events that are public knowledge.
I'm not saying ''There is 0% chance that anyone makes a move for the #2 pick, and Memphis are so in love with Ja they will never move him.'' I'm saying that the difficulties surrounding getting Ja, especially the assets that would need to be expended to get him, are so large and numerous that it's extremely weird for so many people to have him as their main focus in trade talks, particularly when Memphis aren't even one of the teams purported to be involved in any AD discussions whatsoever. It's like people have just decided they like Ja, and have therefore decided to make this the ''get Ja Morant'' trade, instead of the ''get the best return for AD'' trade.