One thing people often get confused about is the difference between the best player and the one with the most trade value. When you discuss the former, you are strictly talking about a player's on-court performance. Meanwhile, when talking about the latter, you need to factor in variables like age, length of contract, and average annual value.
Here, at A Royal Pain, we've already done some work to try and figure out who the team's best player is. But we have yet to do the same exercise through the trade value lens. So, here is our attempt at doing that.
Our Methodology
I've done work for other websites in the past looking at what certain calibers of players are "worth" on the open market. I will lean on what I found in those studies in my rankings here. I will also factor in how some recent trades (like the one that sent Mikal Bridges to the New York Knicks) will affect the market moving forward.
To avoid having this article take up 14 slides (the number of players on the team under standard contracts), I am going to group the players into six different categories. And whenever possible, I will rank the players within those tiers.
Now, without further ado, let the games begin.