New Orleans Pelicans: Trading Nickeil Alexander-Walker to OKC Thunder
The New Orleans Pelicans could help balance the roster by trading Nickeil Alexander-Walker to the OKC Thunder.
The New Orleans Pelicans made a lot of changes this offseason, adding five new players to their roster, which may have made Nickeil Alexander-Walker redundant.
The Pels have a logjam at shooting guard with Eric Bledsoe, Josh Hart and JJ Redick all expected to be higher on the depth chart than NAW.
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No team underwent more changes than the OKC Thunder, who traded practically their entire roster for draft picks and now have the youngest team in the NBA by far.
The Thunder clearly aren’t going to be competing for titles anytime soon, so will undoubtedly be looking for deals that will yield them additional picks or young players.
The Thunder already have five ex-Pelicans on their roster (Darius Miller, Kenrich Wiliams, Frank Jackson, Zylan Cheatham, Josh Gray), six if you include George Hill, who was a Pelican for about five minutes.
The Thunder also have NAW’s cousin, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and might want to unite the two combo guards.
Here are two trades that work for both teams.
New Orleans Pelicans: A trade that sends Nickeil Alexander-Walker to the OKC Thunder
Trade #1
In this trade, the Pelicans and Thunder swap prospects who have both been inconsistent. The Thunder get a younger prospect in NAW and the Pels get a player who better fits their roster with Jackson.
At 6-foot-7, 220 lbs. Jackson would give the Pels some depth at both forward positions and would essentially get a wing prospect to try out for a year before his contract expires.
This is not a blockbuster by any means but would give the Pels some future cap space, an extra 2nd round pick and a prospect who better fits their needs.