New Orleans Pelicans should pursue trade with Hawks for Kevin Huerter

New Orleans Pelicans: Trading with the Atlanta Hawks for Kevin Huerter

Why the Hawks would do it

It would seem like the addition of Danilo Gallinari would make someone like Melli redundant, after all, they play the same position and Gallinari is a lot better.

But Gallinari is also injury prone, and if he goes down, the Hawks have no one behind John Collins at power forward.

Melli would not only provide cheap protection against a Gallinari injury but would make the Hawks bigger and more versatile offensively.

Neither Huerter nor Melli are much on the defensive end, but Melli can at least defend a variety of bigs, as he showed at times in the bubble.

Melli would add some veteran toughness to an Atlanta team that is very young and give them depth at forward and even at center in small-ball lineups.

Huerter could potentially get buried in the depth chart for Atlanta, especially if the Hawks want to keep a defensive-minded guard like Rajon Rondo or Kris Dunn on the floor with Trae Young at all times.

Huerter could be the odd man out, so the Hawks would be trading from a position of strength to bolster their big-man depth at multiple spots.

The Hawks may ask for more in return, especially in terms of draft assets and the Pels would obviously balk at including anything in the first round, but if they had to add another second-round pick or two? It still might be worth it.