The origins of 2026's most valuable draft picks - the ones that could turn into top-10 selections - are pretty widely known. For instance, it's no secret that the Hawks control the most favorable of New Orleans' and Milwaukee's 2026 first-rounders as a result of the Pelicans trading up for Derik Queen on draft night last June.
But there are dozens of other 2026 draft picks likely to change hands, and the reasons that teams gave up some of those picks aren't quite so memorable. That's especially true of traded second-rounders, but it applies to a few first-round selections too.
For instance, if you're a Timberwolves fan, you probably haven't forgotten why the Pistons will almost certainly have Minnesota's first-round pick this June. But if you root for another team, you might not remember that the Wolves gave up swap rights on that pick just last month in a deal involving Mike Conley.
Going down memory lane and revisiting past deals to see what sort of impact they'll have on this year's draft is a fun exercise, so we're going to run through all of this year's traded draft picks and identify the deal in which they were initially given up.
A couple caveats before we dive in: First, we're just looking at the initial trade in which the pick was moved, so if it has changed hands a few times since then, we're not covering all of those subsequent deals.
Second, we're not including the traded picks that are locks (or near-locks) to fall into their protected range this season, such as the top-eight protected first-rounder the Wizards owe New York. We're just focusing on picks that will - or at least have a realistic chance to - change hands this spring.
With all that in mind, let's revisit the deals in which teams gave up 2026 draft picks...
