In last night's NBA draft, the Clippers waited, and waited... and waited some more, before paying a reported $600,000 fee to acquire the rights to the 56th overall pick, selecting Branden Dawson from Michigan State. We'll have plenty of analysis about Dawson's skills on the court (hint: he probably won't be getting a lot of minutes this season) to go along with Justin Russo's scouting report. But, for just a few minutes, let's look past the basketball side of the deal and consider the financial ramifications.
Each team is given a certain amount of money per season to use as trade bait.