New Orleans Pelicans: 3 Nicolo Melli Trades That Improve the Defense

New Orleans Pelicans: Potential trade with the Orlando Magic

Why it makes sense for the Magic

The Magic are one of the worst 3-point shooting teams in the league, so they need to add shooting.

Birch doesn’t get a ton of minutes for the Magic and when he’s in there, he can’t spread the floor. The Magic also have a couple of similar players, so Melli would give them a new set of skills to work with and would open their playbook offensively.

This wouldn’t be a blockbuster trade, but the Magic would be trading a redundant skill set for more shooting.

Why is makes sense for the Pelicans

The Pelicans need guys who can defend and Khem Birch can defend.

He can play both the center and power forward position, is a high-energy guy and doesn’t need the ball in his hands to be effective. The Pelicans already have plenty of scoring, but they need guys who play hard, defend and get defensive rebounds.

Birch would add some much needed muscle and defense to the paint, where the Pelicans are 28th in the NBA in points allowed.