9:47pm: The trade sending Richardson to New Orleans and Graham to San Antonio is now official, the Pelicans announced in a press release.
According to Andrew Lopez of ESPN (Twitter link), the 2024 second-rounder going to the Spurs will be either the Bulls’ or Pelicans’ pick (whichever is more favorable), while the 2026 second-rounder will be either the Pelicans’ or Trail Blazers’ pick (whichever is less favorable).
The 2028 and 2029 second-round picks headed to San Antonio are New Orleans’ own.
1:30pm: The Spurs and Pelicans are in agreement on a trade that will send veteran swingman Josh Richardson to New Orleans, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter links). Sources tell Charania that San Antonio will receive guard Devonte’ Graham and four second-round picks in the deal.
The four picks are the Pelicans’ second-rounders in 2024, 2026, 2028 and 2029, Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio Express-News tweets.
Richardson has bounced around the league in recent years but he provides another versatile two-way option for a Pelicans club that has won three straight after a lengthy losing streak dropped them under the .500 mark.
Richardson has appeared in 41 games, including five starts, for San Antonio this season. He averaged 11.4 points and 3.3 assists in those contests.
The 29-year-old played for the Celtics and San Antonio last season and has also worn the uniforms of the Heat, Sixers and Mavericks during his career. He’s a career 36.5 percent 3-point shooter who has averaged 12 points in 479 NBA games.
Richardson will be an unrestricted free agent after making $12.2MM this season.
Graham is making $11.55MM this season and is signed through the 2024/25 season, though the final year is only partially guaranteed. Graham has been a regular member of New Orleans’ rotation, averaging 5.3 points and 2.2 assists in 15.3 minutes in 53 games.
New Orleans had to surrender draft capital to unload its salary commitment to Graham. San Antonio now has 23 draft picks in the next five drafts, according to McDonald’s count (Twitter link).
Good Move for New Orleans. Graham was redundant, and not impacting games for them. Spurs get a ton of 2nds, and a servicable, good shooting, point guard. This is a pretty equal trade for both sides. New Orleans has depth, and this adds quality to it.
Spurs driving that tank.
I dont see why teams just get rid of 2nd round picks for nothing. Nikola Jokic, Manu Ginobli, Draymond Green were all 2nd rounders, makes no sense
Yeah, they’re the 1% of second rounders that work out.
Finding a all nba or all star in NBA is about 2.4 percent. 16.7 percent chance of playing more than three years.
That’s 3 guys – there are 30 second round picks..each year. The hit rate is miniscule
No it’s not. The hit rate for a Hall of Famer is 1%. Starters, rotation guys and prospects.
I’d draft 2 19 year olds every year that picked a bad college or coach but we’re top HS talents.
The last 2 years there have been about a dozen 2nd rounders each year playing rotation minutes.
2021. JRE, Herb Jones, Miles McBride, Ayo Dosunmu, Jericho Sims, Aaron Wiggins, BJ Boston, plus up and comers JT Thor, Kessler Edwards, Isiah Livers and Jason Preston (Jason Midd).
That was 4 part time starters from just one draft class removed.
With Overtime Elite, Australia, Europe and one and dones, judging the talent is harder and more will continue to fall thru the cracks. Having less concentration of of talent means it’s harder to get apples to apples comparisons letting guys like Andrew Nembhard fall to the 2nd.
Hit rate is much lower after the first ten picks of the second round. Plenty of early second round picks become rotation players, and several of them become all stars. As the game gets more popular, talent is developing in greater numbers in more places – yet team executives aren’t necessarily getting better at finding the best talent.
Underrated Spurs move. Devontae is good, younger and wasn’t getting any pt
Four SRPs is close to the market price of just shedding the money left on DG’s contract.
Took a bunch of those picks, but they got off Graham’s contract and Richardson is a really good add for them to just add more versatility, size, depth, and helps defensively next to their scorers
Great move for both sides. JRich is a solid defender and second unit leader. Also opens minutes for Daniel’s. whereas for the Apurs they lacked depth at point guard and so this helps, plus they add a bunch of second round picks.