Trayce Jackson-Davis gives the inside story on how he fell to GSW in the draft on purpose

Have I mentioned I have an irrational good feeling about this guy

How did Trayce Jackson-Davis feel watching it all unfold on draft night?

TJD famously tweeted during the draft, "Y'all will regret it, I promise you." This was at 9:14pm, a half hour before he was finally drafted at #57 at 9:42pm.

He said on Jul 14 to 95.7:

I do have a chip on my shoulder. Obviously during draft night, it was hard. It was hard watching that, and I didn't know really what was going on. I mean, my agent was trying to explain it to me, but I'm just kind of just getting in my own head.

But after he explained actually what was going on, I probably wouldn't have tweeted that because I didn't know that Golden State, they were trying to get the 35th pick, then the 42nd pick, and then obviously they finally got the 57th one.

But I just felt a little discouraged because a lot of the teams that I worked out for were saying the same thing, that they wanted me here, here, and here, and then just kind of like didn't happen. So I just honestly was like, "Okay, well, if that's how y'all want to treat me, then I'm going to show you and prove to you. why I'm better than the 57 pick.

How did Trayce Jackson-Davis fall to the #57 draft pick?

It was not a surprise that he fell out of the first round, but almost all the way out to the other end?

It turns out that there were other teams interested in drafting him, but only in offering him a two-way contract. The Warriors were willing to offer a minimum contract:

Woj reported:

Rookie Trayce Jackson-Davis has agreed to a four-year deal with the Golden State Warriors, including two guaranteed seasons, his agents James Dunleavy and Max Lipsett tell ESPN. Jackson-Davis was the 57th pick out of Indiana U. in the June draft.

TJD’s agent (who incidentally is James Dunleavy, brother of the Warriors GM Mike Dunleavy Jr) had a guarantee of a minimum contract from GSW and so he told second round teams to not bother drafting TJD unless they were going to give him a minimum contract.

Recently Spotrac reported these precise terms:

According to the website Spotrac, which keeps track of contracts throughout all pro sports, Jackson-Davis signed a four-year contract with a total value of $7,639,302. During his rookie year in 2023-24, Jackson-Davis will earn a starting salary of $1,119,563.

The deal guarantees Jackson-Davis $1,891,857 on the second year, for a total of $3,011,520. The third and fourth seasons are team options, $2,221,657 in Year 3 and $2,406,205 in fourth season.

That is some decent guaranteed money, and in exchange, if TJD plays well, GSW will have the option of having him on a bargain contract in Years 3 and 4.

What did GSW do to try to get TJD?

The main obstacle was, of course, GSW did not have any second round draft pick at all! So they tried their hardest to trade into the second round. That means finding a team that didn’t want to use their second round pick and had cap room to accept an offer like Patrick Baldwin Jr, and then outbidding all competitors.

According to TJD himself, he said GSW tried to get pick #35 and then #42. I believe these are the exact draft spots (and not approximations) because these two picks were owned by WAS, which eventually did trade GSW the #57 pick.

History shows that GSW was outbid by CHI for #35, who offered on draft night a package of their 2026 2nd and 2027 2nd. GSW do control 2026 2nd ATL, 2027 GSW, 2028 ATL, 2029 GSW, but they probably thought two picks was too much of a price to pay.

#42 ended up being used by WAS itself on Tristan Vukevic. My guess is that GSW dangled PBJ for #42 and WAS said forget it, but you can have our trash #57 pick. And GSW took that, betting that TJD’s agent could scare other teams off from drafting him.

Why didn’t other teams draft TJD regardless of his discouragement?

I’ve seen a few questions on how TJD could have refused to be drafted as a second round pick. What leverage could he have? Aren’t you just drafted and that’s that?

Here is my understanding: A second round pick must be offered a minimum contract in order for a team to keep his rights. (Source: New CBA I.1.ddd Required Tender).

This means that if a team wants to offer the player less (like a two-way), then they need to have an advance agreement that the drafted player will sign that. Otherwise, they risk the player demanding to be offered the required tender of a minimum contract or else be allowed to leave as an unrestricted free agent.

Since TJD had a minimum contract guarantee from GSW, he had no incentive to accept a two-way from any other team. If another team was willing to offer a minimum, then they could have drafted TJD whether he wanted to go there or not. But TJD probably would have accepted being picked by whatever team would offer him a minimum contract.

Could TJD have forced his way off another team that offered him a minimum contract?

In an extreme case where TJD hated the drafting team, TJD could refuse the required tender contract and sit out of all professional basketball for a year and re-enter the next draft. If he did not sign a contract a second time, then he would become a free agent. But that is a huge price to pay to avoid a team.

In contrast, someone like Gui Santos very likely had their agent sniff around and found no one would offer him a minimum or a two-way so he agreed with GSW, who wanted to hold on to his rights as a draft and stash somewhere, either in Brazil or in the G-League.

And yes the G-League counts as a stash. A team holds the draft pick’s NBA negotiation rights for 1 year after they stop playing for any another pro basketball league.

From Larry C’s CBA FAQ:

If the player is already under contract to, or signs a contract with a non-NBA team, the drafting team retains the player's draft rights for one year after the player's obligation to the non-NBA team ends. Essentially, the clock stops as long as the player plays pro ball outside the NBA. Players are not included in team salary during the regular season while the player is under contract with a non-NBA team.