The New Orleans Pelicans are expected to be extremely active ahead of and at the trade deadline. They need to be if they want to take the quickest road back to relevancy as a franchise. This team has simply proven to be too good when healthy to successfully tank for the remainder of the season and maximize their odds of landing a game-changing talent in this upcoming draft.
The Pelicans have plenty to offer, as the team has reportedly made nearly their entire roster available in deals. Two players they'll likely prioritize as trade candidates are Brandon Ingram and CJ McCollum, two veteran sub-All-Stars who have proven to be valuable contributors but not quite perfect fits for this roster or costars alongside Zion Williamson.
New Orleans might have too many players available for trade though, and there might not be enough interested customers in their upcoming firesale. A few unforeseen buyers have emerged ahead of the deadline which could work out in their favor. Unfortunately for the Pelicans, some unexpected sellers have also revealed themselves this season which might be too much competition for them at the trade deadline.
The Pelicans won't be the only sellers at the 2025 NBA trade deadline
The Pelicans expected to be seeing at the trade deadline, as they always knew that their time with Brandon Ingram would inevitably come to an end. That said, they figured they'd be swapping him for a package to help them in their playoff push, not as part of a teardown or rebuild.
Now that they've lost their season to injuries — and yes, it's really lost, I checked — they'd be wise to shift focus at the trade deadline and shed their win-now veterans, lose as many of their remaining games as possible, land as high of a draft pick as they can, and build around their youth movement. However, New Orleans isn't the only team who had to change directions ahead of the trade deadline.
The Philadelphia 76ers signed All-NBA wing Paul George in the offseason to build their Big 3 with Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey. Like the Pelicans, they suffered through various injuries at the beginning of the year and were never able to recover. Now, Embiid has been missing time with vague diagnoses. With the Sixers sitting at just 15-27, they might be better off shutting him down for the rest of the year and selling off their veteran role players like Kelly Oubre Jr. and Guerschon Yabusele, shifting their focus to go all-in on a title next season instead.
The Chicago Bulls were always expected to be sellers, with quality, experienced players like Zach LaVine, Nikola Vucevic, and Lonzo Ball keeping them in NBA purgatory and away from the top lottery odds. It's become even more pressing for them to shed some of their talent now that they're 19-26 and in the 10th seed in the Eastern Conference. Their draft pick this summer is only top-10 protected and will be owed to the San Antonio Spurs if it falls outside of that range.
Back in the West, there are currently 12 teams with 20 or more wins competing for the 10 postseason slots available. The Dallas Mavericks have been struggling to stay afloat without Luka Doncic, the Golden State Warriors have looked uninspiring after a hot start to the year, and the San Antonio Spurs don't quite look ready to be a playoff team around Victor Wembanyama. Some of them could turn out to be buyers to try to improve their chances at making the postseason, but they could also do some introspection and realize that they should be sellers instead. If so, the Pelicans could have a lot of competition at the trade deadline.