New Orleans Pelicans approach uncertain trade deadline

With the NBA trade deadline approaching in less than 2 weeks and the team slipping further back in the Western Conference standings, the New Orleans Pelicans have some tough decisions coming soon.

The New Orleans Pelicans have had a rough go of it this season. Injuries have plagued the team with as many as four starters missing action at once in recent games. The offense, to their credit, has held its own overall during the course of the season, but defensively, the Pelicans rank a dismal 26th in the NBA. All of this has led to the Pelicans currently sitting in 13th place in the Western Conference, which clearly is a disappointment.

Zach Lowe, senior basketball writer from ESPN, did not sugar coat it in this tweet earlier this morning:

This is not necessarily a fun topic to discuss, but the Pelicans having playoff odds as low as 10% at this point in the season is a pretty bleak outlook if your measure of a successful year is to make the postseason. The NBA trade deadline is coming up in just about 11 days, meaning no further trades can be made this season as of next Thursday, February 7th at 3:00 PM eastern time. As Lowe mentioned in his tweet, the New Orleans Pelicans have to overtake 5 other teams to just make it in the postseason as the 8 seed, and even then, they’d likely have a nearly impossibly difficult matchup with the Golden State Warriors in Round 1 of this unlikely scenario.

All of this leads us to a difficult crossroads in the 2018-2019 NBA season. If we’re being honest with ourselves, there’s a real argument that it might be time from the Pelicans to embrace a full tank this year. But even if the front office doesn’t want to risk forcing Anthony Davis out the door by giving up on the season and tanking, it is reasonable to assume the Pelicans will explore some minor personnel moves, at the very least.

However, as much as New Orleans Pelicans fans hate to admit it, Anthony Davis’ trade value is higher right now than it will be in the summer, or once the 2019-2020 season begins. At this very moment, a team that is willing to take a gamble on Davis would be more likely to part with more assets or quality pieces in return than they would be later on in AD’s contract, simply because they’d be getting as much use out of him as possible ahead of his upcoming free agency in the summer of 2020. His value only gets lower by the day as far as what type a haul a trade suitor would send back for him as his current deal shrink and shrinks, so if  (and only if) New Orleans gets the feeling that Davis is going to depart once his contract is up, it might not hurt to hear offers between now and the trade deadline. It’s a tough pill to swallow, but it’s a reality that potentially could be coming whether you like it or not.

On the other hand, if the Pelicans decide they want to roll the dice and keep trying to build a team around Davis to take another shot at a deep playoff run next season, there are still some beneficial moves that could be made. Say, for example, Nikola Mirotic. Niko is a valuable player that adds useful scoring and rebounding to this New Orleans team. Still, with his contract expiring after this season, it may be worth testing the waters to see if any other teams will send you a draft pick or young prospect for him if you do not believe he’ll be back next season anyway. It’s better to trade a player for anything back in return than have them walk in free agency for nothing, so situations like this are ones the Pelicans could look to take advantage of if they decide to more-or-less give up on the rest of this season. Mirotic’s services could be useful to a playoff team this season, so perhaps the Pelicans could get a decent piece in return for him.

Regardless of what the New Orleans Pelicans decide to do between now and the trade deadline next Thursday, it will be very interesting to see what unfolds. There is a lot of uncertainty for this franchise coming up in the near future, so we could begin to get some hints about the direction the team is headed in the next week and a half based on what moves (or non-moves) the Pelicans make.