Id still rather see them keep the pick.
I fear Philly more than them. Sacrilegious, I know.
But think of Orlando. If the Lakers keep their pick this year, then Orlando doesn't get a 1st from the Lakers for the Dwight Howard trade 5 years ago. They've been waiting a long time for that pick.
5 years? wow.
I wonder what the longest delay has ever been? has a team has ever waited a decade to cash in on some picks they traded for?
The most you're allowed to wait is 7 drafts. That's why if the Lakers keep their pick this year, Orlando is hosed. Philly would get next year's, and since you can't have traded a pick for two consecutive years (that's a sloppy version of the rule but it's functionally correct here) the Lakers keep the pick in 2019. But since that's 7 years, Orlando will only get second round picks instead.
So has it actually happened before? Or would this be unprecedented?
I don't know of a pick that's been protected for the full seven years that didn't turn into a 1st. Sacramento has owed a top-10 protected pick for six drafts, and it converts to a second this year if not conveyed.
EDIT: I should point out that when the Lakers traded their pick to the Magic, the earliest it could convey was in 2017, and only had a 3-year conveyance window because of the picks LA already owed Phoenix for Steve Nash. So it isn't that this pick didn't convey for 7 years.