Trade Deadline Discussion

Setting up a thread for trade deadline discussion.

This organization seems inept at selling. We should absolutely trade CJ McCullum as his value is the highest it will ever be as a Pelican. We will lose him for nothing after next year if not. Clearly no one wants to give anything of value for BI as an injury prone rental, so we should just let his deal expire. We may just see a salary dump trade of a couple lesser role players to get under the luxury tax after all the previous chatter.

My personal favorite trade proposal as I mentioned a few months ago is a swap of BI and CJ McCullum for Zach Lavine and an expiring Lonzo Ball. I cannot imagine a better deal on the market for Chicago who is shopping Lavine and Vucevic. The move allows us to get under the luxury tax and have a BI level player with better 3 point shooting to play alongside Zion, Murray, Trey Murphy, Missi, and Herb (6th man) next season, hopefully guided by a competent coach. That is still a quality NBA lineup if the Pels can get a competent coach. Chicago gets 2 quality NBA players for 1. They can reasonably re-sign BI. Its a win for both sides.

To be honest, it's hard to assess what this trade deadline will be given teams and players are still figuring out the apron's ecosystems.

Given the pelicans situation I will advocate against taking long term contracts unless it allows the team to obtain assets in the form of rookie's scale contract or futur draft picks.

Apparently the Apron makes folks cautious and most teams are waiting to see what happens with Jimmy Bulter.

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Originally Posted by Darkhorse985

My personal favorite trade proposal as I mentioned a few months ago is a swap of BI and CJ McCullum for Zach Lavine and an expiring Lonzo Ball.

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Jake Madison was hyping up that exact trade recently (maybe you're him). I'm on board with it.

The aprons are game changers for the team building.
Previously if you wanted to win, basically you had to identify your star and your most valued starters and pay them all the max by using their bird rights and then add role players with the exception available or draft picks. That's how all the previous championship team were built, see Denver, GS, Milwaukee, Boston etc.

Now with the aprons even if you are a deep pocketed owner, you have to keep control of the cost on all roster except the superstar. That's why the value of second options players like BI have plummeted. They use to be paid the same money as the franchise player in the previous system and it's no longer sustainable with the aprons.
Basically the number 2 or 3 options are going to see their salary decrease in order to have enough money to build the rest of the roster while avoiding the apron's restrictions. They're the biggest losers for the new CBA and until they adjust to the new reality of their value, no team will take on their contract. Hence limiting the chance of seeing blockbuster trade.

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Originally Posted by Blattman

The aprons are game changers for the team building.
Previously if you wanted to win, basically you had to identify your star and your most valued starters and pay them all the max by using their bird rights and then add role players with the exception available or draft picks. That's how all the previous championship team were built, see Denver, GS, Milwaukee, Boston etc.

Now with the aprons even if you are a deep pocketed owner, you have to keep control of the cost on all roster except the superstar. That's why the value of second options players like BI have plummeted. They use to be paid the same money as the franchise player in the previous system and it's no longer sustainable with the aprons.
Basically the number 2 or 3 options are going to see their salary decrease in order to have enough money to build the rest of the roster while avoiding the apron's restrictions. They're the biggest losers for the new CBA and until they adjust to the new reality of their value, no team will take on their contract. Hence limiting the chance of seeing blockbuster trade.

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Which means we will probably end up resigning Ingram to a less than max deal. Or another team will in the off season.

Kings interested in trading Fox!

JUST IN: The Sacramento Kings are expected to open up talks to potentially deal All-Star De'Aaron Fox ahead of Feb. 6 trade deadline, sources tell ESPN. There will be plenty of suitors, but it's believed that Fox has a target destination in mind ahead of 2026 free agency. pic.twitter.com/Oh3fXgZjm3

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) January 28, 2025

Give em Ingram and ????? to make this trade work?

The Raptors are a team to watch for Brandon Ingram, per @TheSteinLine

“I’m told Toronto has emerged as a team to watch when it comes to Ingram. It remains to be seen whether the Raptors become more than that where Ingram is concerned, but the mere suggestion of potential… pic.twitter.com/V252mkb1Mn

— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) January 28, 2025

My wildly complicated attempt at reshaping things / blowing things up. Think of the incoming guys with 1 year left purely as expirings though let's pretend we keep Trey Lyles:


https://i.ibb.co/60r6XbCg/fanspo-nba...1-49-09-PM.jpg


Here's 12 deep plus we have a very high (impactful?) draft pick incoming.

D. Fox / J. Alvarado
T. Murphy / G. Dick / J. Hawkins / K. Huerter / B. Boston
K. Murray
H. Jones / T. Lyles
Y. Missi / I. Stewart

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Originally Posted by donato

My wildly complicated attempt at reshaping things / blowing things up. Think of the incoming guys with 1 year left purely as expirings though let's pretend we keep Trey Lyles:


https://i.ibb.co/60r6XbCg/fanspo-nba...1-49-09-PM.jpg


Here's 12 deep plus we have a very high (impactful?) draft pick incoming.

D. Fox / J. Alvarado
T. Murphy / G. Dick / J. Hawkins / K. Huerter / B. Boston
K. Murray
H. Jones / T. Lyles
Y. Missi / I. Stewart

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This would be the most complex trade in NBA history lol

The one good thing is Missi seems to be the player we needed him to be and we can afford to ignore the position for a while. While Jonas was a very good player, you needed another guy to compliment him in certain situations and Larry Nance fell off hard after his first year. So hypothetically, the players you are mostly looking to trade (if at all) are Ingram, Zion and CJ for either a reset or to rebalance the squad. Murray/Herb/ZionorBI/Trey/Missi is still a core you can work with and salvage if that is the direction you want to go. But you have to build a team that can win with and without one of BI or Zion. They haven't proven they can stay healthy. That should be the goal. Build a team that can get as high a seed as possible and ride the home floor as long as possible. We need to be a much better regular season team. Play-ins make it that much harder for you. We cannot continue to barely get by.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by donato

My wildly complicated attempt at reshaping things / blowing things up. Think of the incoming guys with 1 year left purely as expirings though let's pretend we keep Trey Lyles:


https://i.ibb.co/60r6XbCg/fanspo-nba...1-49-09-PM.jpg


Here's 12 deep plus we have a very high (impactful?) draft pick incoming.

D. Fox / J. Alvarado
T. Murphy / G. Dick / J. Hawkins / K. Huerter / B. Boston
K. Murray
H. Jones / T. Lyles
Y. Missi / I. Stewart

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Awesome accounting in that trade, but the Pels come out the worst by far in that deal if no significant draft picks are attached.

NBA ratings are down and suddenly Luka gets traded to LA for only AD....because the league isn't rigged. I promise.

Such a wild and sudden trade.

Fox to the Spurs
Lavine to the Kings

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Originally Posted by markid

Fox to the Spurs
Lavine to the Kings

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That trade was fair. The Kings got a haul and a very good player in Lavine. I would put Lavine in the same tier NBA player as Fox tbh.

The three first rounders the Kings got from the Spurs are...not great.

The 2025 Charlotte pick is Top 14 protected. Hornets are 4th worst in the NBA this season.

The 2027 Spurs pick won't be great unless the Wemby/Fox team completely fails.

The 2031 T-Wolves pick is far away.

— Matt George (@MattGeorgeSAC) February 3, 2025

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Originally Posted by Darkhorse985

That trade was fair. The Kings got a haul and a very good player in Lavine. I would put Lavine in the same tier NBA player as Fox tbh.

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What? Not even close.

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Originally Posted by PELICANSFAN

What? Not even close.

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Fox is somewhat overrated. There is a reason the Kings traded him. He is a definite upgrade to the Spurs, but he is very much a Zach Lavine level player. Their stats are very comparable, and Lavine is a better shooter.

Wow, attaching draft compensation to move a useful backup center like Daniel Theis is the move the Pels make? Nice. This team is so bad… Do you think a team like the Lakers would have given a 2nd for a serviceable center?

Theis has been traded away with a pick attached. Off he goes.

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Originally Posted by Darkhorse985

Wow, attaching draft compensation to move a useful backup center like Daniel Theis is the move the Pels make? Nice. This team is so bad… Do you think a team like the Lakers would have given a 2nd for a serviceable center?

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I think so. They're desperate for a big.

Starting Lineup for the Pels next season if no one ruptures an Achilles or tears an ACL between now and the end of the season…

PG: CJ McCullum
SG: Trey Murphy III
SF: Herb Jones
PF: Zion Williamson (probably will see him actually play sometime after January, maybe)
C: Yves Missi

Please may we find an experienced NBA head coach with skins on the wall to lead this team.

For anyone wondering, Theis and a future 2nd was traded to OKC for a bag of chips. Salary dump to get under the tax.

Can someone remind Griff what the definition of insanity is?

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Originally Posted by Darkhorse985

Fox is somewhat overrated. There is a reason the Kings traded him. He is a definite upgrade to the Spurs, but he is very much a Zach Lavine level player. Their stats are very comparable, and Lavine is a better shooter.

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No, they traded him because Rich Paul pulled his normal scorched earth trade demand ways.