New Orleans Pelicans: Pros and cons of trading for Kevin Durant

The New Orleans Pelicans were quiet on the first day of free agency, but that didn’t stop them from being mentioned in the league’s biggest drama.

Forget all of the free agent names, the biggest news of last night was that superstar Kevin Durant asked for a trade from the Brooklyn Nets.

This news rocked the NBA world, as all-time greats don’t hit the market too often, so Durant’s request overshadowed everything else that happened yesterday.

The New Orleans Pelicans, Nets and Kevin Durant

Let’s first stop and admire what a monumental failure the Durant/Kyrie Irving/James Harden trio was for the Brooklyn Nets.

They traded pretty much ALL of their future draft picks (unprotected) to get Harden, who is no longer on the team after they had to trade him for headcase Ben Simmons and a couple of draft picks.

Simmons didn’t play a single minute for the Nets last season as they got bounced in the first-round of the players after underachieving spectacularly.

They paid Irving huge money last season to barely play, and now they are stuck with a guy who seems more interested in his moronic life philosophy than playing basketball.

Can you blame Durant for wanting out? He cleverly waited for Kyrie to opt-in to his contract and then said “get me the hell out of this mess.”

This is now the second time in recent history that the Nets have tried to build a super team only to have it blow up in their face, and now they’ll get to watch Houston reap the rewards just like Boston did the last time.

It’s crazy to think that the Knicks aren’t even the most dysfunctional team in New York, but here we are.

The Nets are going to ask for the biggest trade package in league history to move Durant, and as one one of the only teams with the ammo to do it, the New Orleans Pelicans were immediately mentioned:

First off, I should say that I absolutely DO NOT THINK THIS IS GOING TO HAPPEN. The Pelicans are happy with the direction of the team, have a roster loaded with young talent and have no reason to make an “all-in” move like this at this point.

But it’s going to get talked about, so let’s look at some of the pros and cons of a possible trade for Kevin Durant.

New Orleans Pelicans: Trading Zion Williamson or Brandon Ingram for Kevin Durant

Any trade for Kevin Durant is likely to have to include either Zion Williamson or Brandon Ingram, though the Pelicans are one of the few teams that wouldn’t have to throw in much more than just one of their young stars.

They could likely trade Zion almost straight up for Durant, who is 33-years-old. Trading Ingram would take more of a sweetener in the form of a couple of first-round draft picks, which the New Orleans Pelicans have.

Pros: Adding Durant, even if the Pels had to give up Zion, would make them the frontrunners to win a title next season. The Pelicans made the playoffs without Zion, so adding one of the greatest scorers of all time to a team that already made the playoffs, would make them nearly unstoppable offensively.

Imagine a trio of Durant, McCollum and Ingram or Durant, McCollum and Zion. They would be poised to contend for a few seasons at least. Winning titles is the point of the NBA, so you have to take your shot when you get it.

Cons: They are ready to contend anyway, as this team has a chance to be scary next season with the roster they already have in place. Not only that, but switching out a 21-year-old for 33-year-old Durant might actually put a cap on how many titles they could win.

Look, it is never a given in the NBA and lots can change, but this team has the young talent and draft assets to be sustainably good for the foreseeable future, and they’d be giving some of that future up by trading for Durant.

Yes, Durant might give them a better chance to win a title next season, but what about the season after that? And the one after that? How about five years from now when he is out of the league? The Pelicans have a bigger championship window with the team they have now, even if their odds of winning a title aren’t as high.

New Orleans Pelicans: The future for Zion Williamson and Kevin Durant

Both Zion Williamson and Kevin Durant have had injury concerns in their careers and have had to miss whole seasons, so which one is the bigger risk?

Pros: Zion Williamson has not yet proven that he can stay healthy, which has to be a concern for team that is about to give him a max extension.

Even though he looks ripped right now, that doesn’t mean anything until we see him on the court, dominating for an entire season and not just part of it.

His future is a big question mark, so why not cash-in on him now to land one of the greatest players of all time?

Cons: As I said, Durant is an all-time great and one of the few players in the NBA who could make any team he joins a contender. But he is 33-years-old and hardly has a clean injury history himself.

He played 55 games last season, 35 the season before that, and played exactly zero games in 2019-20 due to an achilles injury. You don’t really know what you are getting with him either, but the big difference is that he is 12 years older than Zion Williamson, so it’s not likely that these injury concerns are going away.

They are only going to get worse as he ages.

Do you really want to be the team that trades away an under 25 superstar (whether it is Zion or BI) for the last years of Durant’s career?

Me either.

Then there is the question of fit.

Kevin Durant’s fit with the New Orleans Pelicans

Kevin Durant has been on three teams in his career and ended up leaving all of them on his own terms, which is what you get to do when you are superstar. So how would he fit with the small-market New Orleans Pelicans?

Pros: From a basketball perspective, Durant fits on any team, so that wouldn’t be an issue. He would give the Pels the 3-point shooting and spacing they lack and can play with any of the guys they have.

He has also played and succeeded with a small-market team in the past, so I don’t think that would be an issue.

Cons: What’s to stop Kevin Durant from demanding a trade in a season or two if the New Orleans Pelicans don’t win a title? This guy can’t be trusted, as he is a front runner who joined a ready-made title team in Golden State before leaving to form his own superteam in Brooklyn.

Let’s say he wants out in two years when he is 35 years old. The return for him won’t be nearly as big as the one the Nets are going to get now, and the Pelicans could be stuck watching Zion or BI dominate for another team while they holding the scraps of a trade for an aging player in decline.

Zion Williamson has repeatedly said he wants to be in New Orleans, who were not a team that was reportedly on Durant’s list. Shocker, he wants to go to the Suns, the team that had the best record in the NBA last year, hoping to win another Mickey Mouse ring on a team he didn’t help build.

Count me all the way out on Kevin Durant even though I love watching him play and the idea of him in New Orleans is intriguing.

He is an even bigger risk than Zion when you factor in his age and flakiness, so the Pels should just keep building with what they have, as they have a chance to have a homegrown superteam themselves and don’t need Durant wrecking the chemistry.