The Pelicans didn't hesitate to bring a seemingly unwilling Eric Gordon back last summer, matching a four-year maximum-value offer sheet from the Suns. This time, New Orleans doesn't appear to have reservations about letting him go. GM Dell Demps told reporters today, including John Reid of The Times-Picayune, that the team would consider deals for Gordon or anyone else on the team's roster.
The news is in keeping with what we heard close to the deadline, when it appeared the Pelicans were more likely to revisit trade offers in the summer than pull the trigger immediately. Part of the reason for that appears to have been the reservations that several teams had about Gordon's balky right knee, not to mention his contract, as Reid writes. Gordon would have to approve any trade that takes place from now until July 14th, since that's when the Pelicans matched his offer sheet from the Suns.
One deadline rumor linked the Warriors to Gordon in a deal involving Klay Thompson. Gordon counted Golden State and Phoenix as places he wouldn't mind winding up via trade, but regardless of whether Gordon would OK a trade to the Suns, that can't happen at all until one year from the time the Pelicans matched his offer sheet from them.
Gordon was out for the first 29 games this season with a patella tendon disorder and bone bruise in his right knee, the same one on which Gordon underwent arthroscopic surgery during the 2011/12 season, when he saw action in just nine games. He was under a minutes restriction for most of this past season, and averaged 30.1 minutes per game in 42 contests while shooting 40.2%, both career lows.