On this "dumb" conspiracy topic....The Nets future draft capital is being sent to HOU. They don't have the incentive to tank on their own. They could always tank anyways, but they also just traded a first rounder for Royce signaling that they are trying to stay competitive to some degree. Their owner is newish, and I doubt he wants to start all over and just start stinking again. They never really started to win even with KD and Kyrie. A boatload of picks might not be as appetizing as the chance to stay in the playoff conversation and hold some relevancy. Mitchell could be in play here, but also Gobert. I felt as though the main thing keeping Gobert from BKN was that Durant does not like Gobert and Durant was helping make the decisions there.
Having said that, that's still very far out there as far as theories go. But I do think the Jazz acquire the first to trade it....not to use it and draft with it later. I think Collins is heavily in play here. Bogey + 1st meets the description of ATL has been reportedly asking for.