NBA draft asset rankings: Seven-year outlooks for all 30 teams
Which NBA franchises control the next five, six or even seven draft
With strong draft classes ahead — and the 2025 trade deadline even sooner — we’ll start to see the most important draft picks, protections and swap rights come into focus.
Eight draft picks have already been traded in deals this season, headlined by the Los Angeles Lakers moving D’Angelo Russell and three second-rounders to the Brooklyn Nets for Dorian Finney-Smith. The Nets had traded former starting guard Dennis Schroder to the Golden State Warriors two weeks earlier in a trade that featured four second-rounders.
With more picks certain to be dealt between now and the league’s Feb. 6 trade deadline, ESPN NBA Front Office Insider Bobby Marks is ranking each team’s collection of draft assets from 1 to 30.
1. Oklahoma City Thunder
Out of the group of five teams that control the 2025 draft’s first round, no team is better positioned than OKC to win now and have sustainable success in the future. Because of the six first-round picks acquired from other teams and two years of swaps with the LA Clippers, the Thunder could select in the lottery and also finish each season with one of the best records in the NBA.
Incoming first-round picks: 13
- All seven of their own
- Unprotected from LA Clippers (2026)
- Top-4 protected from Houston (2026)
- Top-10 protected from Utah (2025, top-8 in 2026)
- Top-14 protected from Miami (2025, unprotected in 2026)
- Top-6 protected from Philadelphia (2025, top-4 protected in 2026 and 2027)
- Top-5 protected from Denver (2027, top-5 protected in 2028)
- Top-5 protected from Denver (2029, if first conveyed in 2027, top 5-protected in 2030 if first is conveyed by 2028)
- Swap rights: LA Clippers (2025 and 2027)
- Swap rights: Houston (2025, top-10 protected)
- Swap rights: Dallas (2028)
Notes: In 2026, Oklahoma City has two of the most favorable of its own, Houston (if 5-30) and LA Clippers. The least favorable of the three firsts will go to Philadelphia. In 2027, the Thunder can swap the more favorable of their own and Denver (if 6-30) with the LA Clippers.
Tradable first-round picks: 10
Second-round picks: 16
Outgoing first-round picks: None
2. San Antonio Spurs
It’s quality over quantity for San Antonio, which sits in the second spot of the ranking despite having fewer first-round picks than third-place Brooklyn. The value of the Hawks’ unprotected 2025 and 2027 first-round picks and the right to swap a first in 2026 with Atlanta trumps any first-round pick the Nets have accumulated.
The Spurs’ 12 first-round picks and four years of pick swaps should accelerate a rebuild that started when Kawhi Leonard was traded in 2018 and continues with Victor Wembanyama as the face of the franchise.
Incoming first-round picks: 12
- All seven of their own
- Two unprotected from Atlanta (2025 and 2027)
- Top-14 protected from Charlotte (2025)
- Top-10 protected from Chicago (2025, top-8 protected in 2026 and 2027)
- Unprotected from Minnesota (2031)
- Swap rights: Atlanta (2026)
- Swap rights: Boston (2028, top-1 protected)
- Swap rights: More favorable of Dallas and Minnesota (top-1 protected; 2030)
- Swap rights: Sacramento (2031)
Tradable first-round picks: (9)
Second-round picks: (17)
Outgoing first-round picks: None
