New Orleans Pelicans: Best trade in team history with the 76ers

Like all teams in the NBA, the New Orleans Pelicans history is up and down when it comes to trades.

All trades carry a certain amount of risk, especially if draft picks are involved, as a team could trade away a pick that ends up becoming a future star.

This is also true when trading young players, as guys in their first few years in the league usually aren’t in their final form and could also end up becoming stars.

The Pelicans’ trade history isn’t great overall, but this particular trade with the 76ers worked out well for the New Orleans Pelicans and continues to pay dividends.

New Orleans Pelicans: Trade with Philly brings an icon to NOLA

This trade had a lot of ramifications for the New Orleans Pelicans and continues to pay off for them even today. It happened on July 12, 2013 and brought a future icon to the Big Easy:

This trade is often credited as being the beginning of “The Process” where Philly tore down their roster and tried to amass as many draft picks and young players as they could.

Noel was selected 6th by the New Orleans Pelicans and many thought he was going to be one of the next great centers in the league. Though he has had a good career, Noel never lived up to that hype and has really been more of a role player than a star.

Payton (who is now on the Knicks along with Noel) never amounted to more than a role player either, so the Pelicans got one of the best players in their franchise history in exchange for two bench players.

Jrue Holiday had an outstanding 7-year career before being traded to Milwaukee and winning a title as the third star for the Bucks. Holiday is known as one of the best defenders in the NBA and has made several All-Defensive teams since being traded from Philly.

Not only that, but the Holiday trade keeps giving, as the Pelicans still have draft picks and swaps coming to them from Milwaukee, so when you look at the overall package the Pelicans got for Nerlens Noel and a pick, it is pretty impressive.

They not only got the best player in the deal (by far) but ended up with a ton of draft assets as well.

This will go down as one of the best trades in franchise history for the Pelicans but is one the 76ers would probably like to have back.