New Orleans Pelicans: 5 players most likely to be traded this offseason

New Orleans Pelicans: 5 players most likely to be traded

#2: Jaxson Hayes

Hayes is one of the toughest decisions the Pelicans will have to make this offseason. They could decide to extend him, but that carries some amount of risk given his lack of progress and some of his non basketball issues.

But letting him hit restricted free agency is also a risk, as if Hayes could blow up next season and then the Pelicans might be stuck trying to match a huge offer from some other team.

If Hayes will agree to a reasonable extension, (say 3 years/$24 million), the Pels will probably jump at it, but if he won’t, they might try to package him with a draft pick and land a nice player, someone like Jerami Grant from the Pistons.

They could also put his salary with the next guy’s and create a pretty enticing package with their top-10 pick to land another impact player.

#1: Devonte’ Graham

The Pelicans have a guard problem in that they have three small guys who can’t play together and are going to have a hard time getting adequate minutes.

But Graham is coming off a down season, which might make him difficult to move without attaching an asset, which the Pelicans certainly don’t want to do again.

He’s another “salary match” guy, as I don’t think the Pelicans are desperate to trade him, but if they do make a trade, they will almost certainly need his salary to make it happen.

This is less a knock on Devonte’ (who could thrive on this team when it is at full strength) and more about his contract and roster redundancy.