Derick Hingle/NBAE via Getty Images
Biggest Win: Dejounte Murray trade
Turning two mid-end-at-best first-rounders, Dyson Daniels and Larry Nance Jr. into Murray is excellent business by the New Orleans Pelicans. The fit isn’t perfect, but he sufficiently inoculates the offense against injuries to Zion Williamson and a potential Brandon Ingram divorce.
Murray will also be more of a needle-mover in New Orleans than Atlanta. He has improved his outside shooting enough to orbit Zion-led actions, and his passing is good enough to play more of a traditional two-man game with Williamson if head coach Willie Green is so inclined. The value of his defense also goes through the roof in a rotation with Herb Jones, Trey Murphy, Jose Alvarado, Ingram, and, heck, last year’s version of Zion.
Then, of course, we have the contract. Murray is about to start a four-year, $114.2 million deal that tops out at roughly 17.3 percent of the salary cap in any given season. This is a flexibility-and-sustainability boon for a Pelicans franchise grappling with upcoming paydays that has (so far) shown no inclination to pay the tax.
Biggest Loss: Center rotation
Failing to clarify Ingram’s future with an extension or trade could go here. But the Pelicans still have him in the roster, and if his value on the open market remains lackluster, it reinforces the leverage they have in contract negotiations.
New Orleans’ center rotation is more disconcerting. It’s not that they moved on from Nance and Jonas Valančiūnas, per se. It’s that they did so without having a more bankable course mapped out. A center carousel of Daniel Theis, Yves Missi, Karlo Matković and, I guess, Zion-at-the-5 arrangements is shaky stuff.
Perhaps it all works out. The Pelicans are that talented and deep on the perimeter. And at 32, Theis isn’t exactly a fossil. This is nevertheless not ideal when evaluating New Orleans against what should be lofty playoff aspirations.
ORLANDO –– Just days after the Orlando Magic's City Edition uniforms for the upcoming 2024-25 NBA season may have leaked on social media, so too has its pos
Hapoel Jerusalem begins its European basketball campaign next week, marking the Reds’ return to the EuroCup for the first time since the 2017-18 sea
It’s hard to master a great uniform in any sport, but especially the NBA. NBA social media is always looking to pounce with criticism and extremely hot takes.
Can you name the NBA logos that do not have a basketball?Can you name the NBA logos that do not have a basketball?Longtime NBA reporter and writer Adrian Wojnar