How the Pelicans can keep Josh Hart and Lonzo Ball

The New Orleans Pelicans have tough decisions to make when it comes to Lonzo Ball and Josh Hart.

Both players have looked like they can and should be part of the Pelicans’ core at times but there is also a question about their long-term fit around Zion Williamson and Brandon Ingram.

Lonzo Ball seems like the perfect type of player to put around Zion but the Pels may be uncomfortable shelling out a five-year max deal to keep him, which is almost certainly what they would have to do if they do not trade him before the deadline.

Lonzo has shown enough that some other team will definitely throw a bag at him, especially when you consider his name recognition and the number of dedicated (euphemism) fans he brings along with him.

Josh Hart has been the Pels’ only real bench contributor and has the type of defensive versatility that they covet. But he is also undersized for his current role and doesn’t have the type of offensive consistency the Pels would like off their bench.

Ultimately, the New Orleans Pelicans will have a limit on how much they’ll spend on these two, but there is a way that they could keep them both and still have some cap space to play around with to fill out their bench.

New Orleans Pelicans: Keeping Josh Hart and Lonzo Ball

The first step to keeping both of these guys is to clear some roster space and salary cap for their future contracts.

This would mean trading J.J Redick now or simply letting him walk at the end of the season which would clear a $13 million spot that could be claimed by Josh Hart.

If Hart wants or can get considerably more than this, then the Pelicans might not be interested, as they still need to save space to fill out the bench. This is probably the number Hart balked at in the offseason, so this plan only works if they can trade Redick and slide Hart into his spot salary-wise.

The second part of the plan is to trade Eric Bledsoe, whose $18 million in salary next season could be the first year of Lonzo’s deal.

It seems simple enough but the Pels would need to trade Bledsoe now for an expiring contract and there may not be a team with one that fits. This would also mean the Pels selling relatively low on Bledsoe, as they’d have to be more concerned with the contract than anything else they got in return.

If the New Orleans Pelicans can trade both Eric Bledsoe and J.J. Redick for expiring contracts before the deadline, then their cap sheet will be a lot cleaner and they could theoretically keep both Lonzo and Hart.

However, re-signing both of them would make it difficult to fill out the bench without going deep into the tax, unless of course several of the Pels’ young guys become reliable contributors.

There are a whole lot of “ifs” here, so the more likely scenario is that the Pels keep one of them and then spread the other money around to get more depth.

David Griffin is going to be busy at the trade deadline and will have to make some decisions that will drastically affect the future of the franchise.