Within the blink of an eye, the 2024-25 NBA season has come and gone. For the New Orleans Pelicans and their fans, though, this year couldn't have gone by fast enough. They've officially tallied just the second season in franchise history with 60 or more losses, and each one was more painful than the last — just ask Jeremiah Robinson-Earl.
While this past campaign really couldn't have gone any worse for New Orleans, the true hoopheads among us will still miss Pelicans basketball. Despite the historic level of losing, this team still put up some memorable moments worth celebrating. Still, the offseason will bring a much-needed sense of rebirth, as well as the long-awaited lottery and subsequent draft.
There's another thing that the offseason brings that's less discussed but highly controversial: the beginning of mock-trade season for the NBA. After the league's trade deadline, the amount of content centered around hypothetical deals dies down dramatically. Non-playoff teams like New Orleans can technically begin making trades again as soon as the regular season ends, which means mock trades will be ramping up here shortly. Some have already hit the presses, and this one from Bleacher Report is sure to raise some eyebrows among the Pelicans' faithful.
The Pelicans trade CJ McCollum and Jordan Hawkins for a strange fusion of the two
New Orleans could certainly overhaul their roster this summer, and some might even say that it's imperative that they do. After all, the ceiling on this previous Pelicans core has proven itself as unbudging and well below the heights of even a dark-horse contender. Swapping Brandon Ingram for Kelly Olynyk and Bruce Brown Jr. and adding Dejounte Murray aren't likely to significantly increase New Orleans's potential, even with a prized rookie in tow.
After dumping BI on the Toronto Raptors, the Pelicans have a few remaining valuable trade chips on their roster, chief among them being CJ McCollum. After notching another solid season averaging 20+ points on 45 percent shooting from the field and 37 percent from deep, he'll be entering the last year of his contract in 2025-26, making him not only an enticing talent but also a desirable contract.
Jordan Hawkins has had a rough start to his NBA career. Through his first two years out of the University of Connecticut, he's averaged just 9.2 points, 2.5 rebounds, and 1.1 assists per game while slashing an atrocious 38/35/83. He's had plenty of flashes of excellence and looks the part as a future microwave scorer and second-unit offensive leader, but those positive glimpses only make his struggles more infuriating. Still, between his youth, picturesque shooting stroke, and encouraging film, he should still hold a decent amount of value as a young prospect worth investing in.
So, between CJ and Hawk, the Pelicans should be able to land a real difference-maker if they were to cobble them together in a trade package. Not according to Bleacher Report's Eric Pincus. He proposed that New Orleans send those two to the Washington Wizards in exchange for Jordan Poole:
"Poole, who turns 26 in June, has helped restore his reputation as a player in Washington despite how poorly the team has fared this season. The 6'4" Poole is a combo guard who could start in Murray's absence and shift to shooting guard or a sixth-man role. He's averaging 20.5 points and 4.5 assists per game this season while shooting 37.8 percent from three-point range. He's significantly younger than McCollum and has championship experience with the Golden State Warriors."
While nothing Pincus said in that blurb is necessarily wrong, it is missing quite a bit of important context. For example, he purposefully omitted Poole's 43 percent mark from the field this past season, as well as his average of 3.0 turnovers per game. He also has two years left on his contract for nearly $33 million AAV. That puts them right back into the salary cap hell they should be hoping to escape this summer.
Poole may have had a decent bounce-back season, but he's just one year removed from having averaged just 17.4 points, 4.4 assists, and 2.4 turnovers on a pitiful 41 percent shooting overall and 33 percent marks from 3-point land. Essentially, the Pelicans would be giving up both CJ McCollum and Jordan Hawkins for someone who would play CJ's role and make his salary but is much closer to Hawk in terms of efficiency. No thanks.
Grade: D