In the final hours until the 2024-25 NBA trade deadline, the rumor mill surrounding the New Orleans Pelicans has been practically dead. While the rest of the league has been lighting up with news drops and smokescreens, it's been radio silence in the Big Easy.
Following their disastrous start to the season mired by injuries that took out their whole core, the Pelicans have plenty of players available after listing almost their entire roster for sale. New Orleans's trading block also includes some very high-level talents such as Brandon Ingram, CJ McCollum, and possibly even former first-overall pick Zion Williamson.
Despite the sheer volume and quality of their firesale, it seems that the Pelicans don't have many buyers. One thing that the Luka Doncic and Anthony Davis trade between the Dallas Mavericks and Los Angeles Lakers taught us, however, is that we can still see some massive deals go down in the shadows in the NBA. The Pelicans are expected to make at least one deal for sure, although if it's the only thing that the team ends up doing at the deadline, fans will be understandably furious.
The Pelicans might just make one move to cut salary at the NBA trade deadline
As I covered a bit ago, the Pelicans are almost guaranteed to make at least one trade before the deadline this season. That's because the team is currently $2.1 million over the luxury tax line. In the entire history of the franchise, including their time as the Hornets, New Orleans has never once paid the luxury tax. In this lost season in which they're expected to compete for the top odds in the NBA Draft lottery, it's highly unlikely that the Benson family will want to start footing the bill now. That's not even taking into consideration the increased consequences of being a repeat luxury tax offender in this new league economy with its updated Collective Bargaining Agreement.
This would normally be an encouraging sign for fans hoping that the Pelicans will make a splash at the deadline, as the team will clearly be motivated to do something before the buzzer. Unfortunately, New Orleans won't have to do much to duck the tax. They have several minimum-salaried players on the roster that they could easily dump into some other team's cap space to shed salary.
For example, they could send Jeremiah Robinson-Earl along with some kind of draft capital to the Toronto Raptors. That move alone would take them where they needed to be on the ledger, so long as they don't take back any salary. We've already gotten reports that several different contenders are interested in dealing for Javonte Green. Trading him alone wouldn't take the Pelicans under the luxury tax, but it would bring them extremely close. Most of the teams interested in Green probably wouldn't mind taking on another one of New Orleans's minimum contracts if it meant landing Javonte.
The Pelicans have a path to a quiet trade deadline that'll still enable them to avoid paying the luxury tax. But doing so would show the world that this team is more concerned with staying the course and maximizing profits than trying to win a title and put a viable product on the court for its fans.