Will the New Orleans Pelicans make another trade?

The New Orleans Pelicans made a splashy trade to acquire CJ McCollum from the Trail Blazers and they may not be done dealing.

The Pels gave up Josh Hart, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Didi Louzada and Tomas Satoransky, so they lost two rotation players while bringing back McCollum, Larry Nance (injured) and Tony Snell (possibly terrible).

While it beefs up the starting lineup and sets the Pelicans up to be a contender in the future, it leaves New Orleans a tad shorthanded for the near term (at least until Nance returns), which means another move may be coming.

New Orleans Pelicans starting lineup depth chart

Last night the Pelicans started Devonte’ Graham, Brandon Ingram, Herb Jones, Jaxson Hayes and Jonas Valanciunas with Josh Hart and Nickeil Alexander-Walker watching from the stands.

I love this lineup and hope the Pelicans stay with something similar once McCollum joins the team, which should be soon.

• CJ McCollum
• Brandon Ingram
• Herb Jones
• Jaxson Hayes
• Jonas Valanciunas

The Pelicans could also decide to keep Graham and McCollum together and have a more traditional backcourt and lineup configuration.

• Devonte’ Graham
• CJ McCollum
• Herb Jones
• Brandon Ingram
• Jonas Valanciunas

Personally, I like moving Graham to the 6th man role as I think it suits him better, but it does potentially create some issues with the bench.

The Pelicans will only have Jose Alvarado, Larry Nance (when healthy), Garrett Temple, Gary Clark, Tony Snell, Hernangomez and either one of Graham or Hayes coming off the bench, not exactly a murderers row there.

Obviously, the starters are going to play a lot of minutes and either Graham or Hayes will get significant run off the bench, but with Nance still out with injury, the Pelicans are lacking some depth.

The New Orleans Pelicans might not be done dealing

There are still a few ways the Pelicans could add more players before the deadline. They could include a third team in the Portland trade and try to send additional picks somewhere in exchange for a player.

This seems unlikely right now, but keep an eye on a team like Detroit, who has the Jerami Grant contract and couple of veterans the Pelicans could use, including Kelly Olynyk.

New Orleans could also just strike a new deal, probably for bench depth at this point and there are a number of teams they could target, as they still have a good number of draft assets and tradable players.

With the McCollum move, the Pelicans have set themselves up for the future, but until Nance returns, New Orleans is still lacking quality depth and may need to make another move.