The New Orleans Pelicans have reportedly been shopping Eric Bledsoe at the deadline. Good luck with that.
According to Chris Crouse at Forty Eight Minutes, Bledsoe is still on the market though that chatter has somewhat died down.
He hasn’t been playing well of late, is still under contract at a hefty price for two years after this one and the Pels are probably finding these factors have led to a slow market for Bledsoe.
The Pels were never expected to get much in return for Bledsoe but now it is looking like moving him will be next to impossible unless New Orleans is willing to attach an asset.
There are a couple of reasons he is going to be very difficult to trade now.
New Orleans Pelicans: You can’t give away Eric Bledsoe’s contract
Even if the Pelicans were to ask for nothing in return, they would have to find a team willing to take on Eric Bledsoe’s contract. There might be a team out there willing to do that, but at the moment no team has the cap space to just absorb it, so they would have to send equal money back in return.
With less than half a season remaining, most teams would rather just wait out their expiring contracts rather than take on that much future money, which means the Pels would find it hard to literally give Bledsoe away for nothing or for a player on an expiring deal.
If they wanted to take back a worse contract that extends beyond this season, there might be one out there but the Pels are trying to clear cap space, not take on more dead weight.
If the Pelicans want to trade Eric Bledsoe for an expiring deal, then they will have to make it worth the other team’s while, which means attaching an asset.
Pelicans: Eric Bledsoe might be easier to trade in the offseason
The market for Bledsoe is limited right now because most of the contending teams do not have a matching contract to send back for Bledsoe.
Something could possibly be worked out with the Clippers, but again, the Pels would have to take back a contract like Luke Kennard, which is even worse than Bledsoe’s.
Bledsoe might be easier to move in the offseason, when more teams have cap space, expiring contracts and different needs to be filled.
But this isn’t a guarantee either, especially if the Pelicans aren’t willing to attach a draft pick, so the mostly likely scenario is that Bledsoe is moved as part of a bigger deal with a lot of parts or isn’t moved at all.
Either way, it’s looking like Eric Bledsoe will be spending at least the rest of this season with the New Orleans Pelicans unless a mystery team emerges or the Pels make a splashy deal involving multiple teams.