2023-06-23 15:58:55
It’s a big day for Bilal Coulibaly. After a first season with professionals in France, the 18-year-old Frenchman is already crossing the Atlantic to tread the NBA floors next season. Victor Wembanyama’s Mets teammate was drafted seventh by Indiana but he’ll never play for them, at least not yet.
In the wake of this announcement, Bilal Coulibaly was sent directly to Washington. Indeed, there are regular exchanges of “pick” (“choice”) in the middle of the NBA draft. In the case of Bilal Coulibaly, Washington absolutely wanted him and was so afraid of being caught that they directly offered them an exchange.
You should know that when it is the turn of a franchise to make its choice, it has five minutes to decide. Five minutes in which other franchises can call to begin negotiations to trade draft picks.
The player has no say
That’s what happened between Indiana and Washington. With the Pacers having the seventh draft pick and the Wizards having the eighth, the two franchises agreed to trade their picks on the condition that the Wizards donate two additional second-round picks.
In such situations, everything happens very quickly and the player has no say. This night, for example, Bilal Coulibaly learned of his “trade” (“exchange”) to Washington a few minutes after the announcement. The winger also made his change of cap a few minutes after the announcement, live on BeIN Sports.
This situation is far from rare in the NBA, where franchises are constantly negotiating with each other to exchange draft picks. One of the most famous recent cases remains that of Luka Doncic, at the time a genius of Real Madrid who landed in the NBA. Selected third pick by Atlanta in 2018, he was “traded” to Dallas against fifth pick Trae Young, in addition to a first-round pick. If the Hawks thought they were getting a good deal, they have since seen Doncic become rookie of the year and then all-star the following season.
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