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.
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.
New Orleans Pelicans: Trading NAW to the OKC Thunder
Trade #2: The Veteran Wing
Trevor Ariza is 35-years-old and has played for about half the teams in the NBA at this point (including the Pelicans), but he can still do one thing that teams want, which is defend the wing.
Ariza played really well down the stretch for Portland, scoring eleven a game and shooting 40 percent from the 3-point line in the final 21 games of the season.
The Pelicans would love to add a veteran 3-and-D wing and Ariza is one who will be available, as there is no way the Thunder have interest in him moving forward.
Would this be too much to give up for a guy on the final year of a partially-guaranteed deal? Maybe, but NAW is unlikely to get much chance to play unless there is an injury or he got a lot better in the offseason.
The Thunder would obviously love this deal, as it would allow them to unload a veteran for a promising young player who is on a very team-friendly contract.
But would the Pels consider this?
New Orleans Pelicans: Trading Nickeil Alexander-Walker for Trevor Ariza
Why the Pels would do it
There are really three reasons the Pelicans would do this trade:
- They would make this trade to protect Brandon Ingram at small forward. They currently don’t have a backup, nor anyone who can really defend wings, so Ingram needs some help here. Ariza is still a good defender and would give the Pels some insurance and depth at the wing.
- The Pels don’t think NAW is part of the future. Let’s face it, it is going to be tough for him to get minutes over Bledsoe, Hart and Redick, so where exactly does he fit in? NAW hasn’t shown he can play point guard, so he might just be a surplus part at this point.
- The Pelicans are near or in the playoffs. If the Pels are in the playoff hunt and want to make a move for a veteran to shore up their depth, then this could be the move to make. Ariza has been to war many times and can be counted on, so the Pels might want to add someone like that down the stretch.
The New Orleans Pelicans need to balance the roster and the best way to do it is to trade from their surplus of shooting guards.
Nickeil Alexander-Walker is young and talented enough to net a decent return, so he might be the guy to be shipped out if the Pels do make a trade.