So the idea here is that the Clippers find themselves in an awkward situation where the best available players are all guards, after they just traded for Darius Garland and Bennedict Mathurin. They also have the Kawhi situation hanging over them, they have reportedly wanted to trade Kawhi as well. By trading down to pick 9 they get Lively, PJ, and draft Nate Ament a high upside wing to make a core of Darius Garland, Bennedict Mathurin, Nate Ament and Dereck Lively. It puts them in a rather good position, with a young core of guys who all have something that could make them great.

The Nets get involved to give the Mavericks a starting center and to move up one pick for the off chance Boozer or Wilson drops to 5 otherwise they get their pick of the guards.

The Mavericks would love to pair one of these talented guards with Cooper for the foreseeable future, and if it means giving up a center who's very talented I could definitely see them doing it. Then they also get Kawhi to lead this team as the primary scorer with the return of a healthy Kyrie to try and make playoff pushes from now on. As they would have their duo of the future and an elite group of talent to try and win right now, as they won't have their picks for the next couple years. This also only raises their salary in the offseason by $11 million, which is still much below the tax cap.

To be clear, I don't know the exact framework a trade like this would go down. I just wanted to throw my idea out there, of what I would like these rosters to kinda look like, and what situations these teams find themselves in and hope for potentially. I do think there will probably be a bit more pick movement than just swapping around in this first round. I think the mavericks would find themselves with their future along with the ability to win as many games as soon as possible and potentially, if there's a significant leap, or someone's better than expected, they maybe try and make a run in the playoffs. The Clippers get out from underneath the Kawhi situation as much as they can and have a young core that has a fair bit of upside that they can maybe look to build with going forward. The Nets get to try and trade Gafford and they get their pick of the guards as they would want and pray that someone in the top four is dumb enough to let either Boozer or Wilson drop.