- Pelicans rookie Herbert Jones broke down film on some of his steals with Christian Clark of NOLA.com. Jones, the No. 35 pick in 2021, has become one of the league’s bright young defenders. He’s averaging 1.5 steals in 29.8 minutes per game this season.
In the wake of Friday’s trade that sent Norman Powell and Robert Covington to the Clippers, many executives around the league expect the Trail Blazers to move CJ McCollum either before the deadline or during the offseason, according to Michael Scotto of HoopsHype. The Pelicans and Mavericks are among the teams with interest in McCollum, Scotto adds.
Joe Cronin, the interim general manager in Portland, said the trade with L.A. was designed to create more playing time for Anfernee Simons, who has emerged as a potential star in his fourth NBA season. Cronin calls Simons, who will be a restricted free agent this summer, a “core piece” and said the team “wanted to create a runway here for him.” The same reasoning could apply to moving the 30-year-old McCollum, who will make $69.13MM over the next two seasons.
Scotto shares a few more trade-related tidbits:
- After Friday’s trade was completed, several teams called the Clippers to see if they were interested in flipping Covington, who has a $12.975MM expiring contract. However, L.A. sees Covington as insurance if Nicolas Batum decides to turn down his $3.3MM player option this summer and would consider re-signing him even if Batum remains with the team. Scotto views Serge Ibaka as the next Clipper who might be traded.
- Sources tell Scotto that the Mavericks passed on an offer of a potential late-lottery pick in exchange for Dorian Finney-Smith. The 28-year-old forward will be a free agent this summer, but Scotto cites “sentiment around the league” that Finney-Smith is outplaying his maximum extension of $55.6MM over four years.
- Pacers center Myles Turner is among the names the Raptors have considered in their search for help in the middle. Scotto identifies Jakob Poeltl, Robert Williams, Nicolas Claxton and Jusuf Nurkic as other potential Toronto targets, saying the Raptors have considered offering a first-round pick to the Spurs for Poeltl. The price for Turner would be even higher, as Indiana wants either two first-round picks or one first-rounder and a young player with potential.
- The Raptors are among several teams with interest in acquiring veteran forward Danilo Gallinari from the Hawks. Scotto notes that Goran Dragic, who hasn’t played since November, could be used to help match salaries in a deal with Atlanta.
- William Guillory of The Athletic examines potential trade scenarios for the Pelicans, who currently rank 11th in the Western Conference at 20-32. New Orleans is only one game behind Portland (21-32) for a spot in the play-in tournament. The team will be seeking its third straight win when it plays Houston on Sunday.
FEBRUARY 4: Louzada announced today (via Twitter) he has undergone surgery on the torn medial meniscus in his left knee and that he’ll go through a process of “rest and rehab” (hat tip to Andrew Lopez of ESPN).
Louzada’s expected recovery timetable is six-to-eight weeks, the Pelicans announced.
JANUARY 23: Pelicans wing Didi Louzada has suffered a torn medial meniscus in his left knee and is out indefinitely, the team announced. Louzada suffered the injury during the second quarter of a game between the Pelicans’ G League affiliate, the Birmingham Squadron, and the South Bay Lakers on Friday. A surgery date has yet to be determined.
Louzada was suspended for 25 games without pay in November for violating the league’s anti-drug policy. He returned from the suspension less than two weeks ago, but hasn’t suited up for a game with New Orleans since the incident.
A 22-year-old from Brazil, Louzada was the 35th overall pick in the 2019 draft. After spending his first two seasons in Australia, he signed with New Orleans in late April 2021. The Pelicans turned down their team option on him last summer in order to sign him to a new four-year contract that includes two fully guaranteed seasons.
Louzada has logged just seven minutes in two games this season after appearing in three contests as an NBA rookie last spring.
He appeared in four games with Birmingham this season, averaging 11.3 points, 3.8 rebounds and 1.5 assists in 24.3 minutes per contest.
As we previously relayed, the NBA announced a new format for its Rising Stars event at All-Star weekend, which will take place on Friday, February 18. The event will feature four seven-player teams competing in a three-game tournament (two semifinals and a final).
The player pool is comprised of 12 NBA rookies, 12 sophomores, and four players from the G League Ignite, while the games will be played to a target score: 50 points in the semifinals and 25 points in the final, in honor of the league’s 75th anniversary season.
The rosters were announced on February 1, but now the four honorary coaches (75th anniversary team members Rick Barry, Isiah Thomas, Gary Payton and James Worthy) have selected their seven-man teams, per our JD Shaw (Twitter link). Here are the rosters:
Team Barry:
- Cade Cunningham (Pistons)
- Dyson Daniels (GLI)
- Evan Mobley (Cavaliers)
- Isaac Okoro (Cavaliers)
- Alperen Sengun (Rockets)
- Jae’Sean Tate (Rockets)
- Franz Wagner (Magic)
Team Isiah:
- Precious Achiuwa (Raptors)
- Desmond Bane (Grizzlies)
- Saddiq Bey (Pistons)
- Anthony Edwards (Timberwolves)
- Tyrese Haliburton (Kings)
- Jaden Hardy (GLI)
- Isaiah Stewart (Pistons)
Team Payton:
- LaMelo Ball (Hornets)
- Scottie Barnes (Raptors)
- Ayo Dosunmu (Bulls)
- Chris Duarte (Pacers)
- Scoot Henderson (GLI)
- Jaden McDaniels (Timberwolves)
- Davion Mitchell (Kings)
Team Worthy:
- Cole Anthony (Magic)
- MarJon Beauchamp (GLI)
- Josh Giddey (Thunder)
- Jalen Green (Rockets)
- Herbert Jones (Pelicans)
- Tyrese Maxey (Sixers)
- Jalen Suggs (Magic)
James Ham of ESPN 1320 and The Kings Beat provides (via Twitter) the full draft results.
The top 10, in order, were: Edwards, Mobley, Ball, Anthony, Giddey, Barnes, Cunningham, Bey, Bane, and Wagner. It’s worth noting that Worthy and Anthony both went to the University of North Carolina, so Anthony’s selection at No. 4 is less surprising given that context.
What do you think of the teams? Who do you think will come out on top? Head to the comments section and let us know your thoughts!
The Pelicans have signed Zylan Cheatham and Miye Oni to 10-day contracts via a hardship exception, the team announced in a press release.
The Pelicans currently have three players in the NBA’s health and safety protocols, per our tracker, making the signings possible. New Orleans subsequently announced (via Twitter) that Cheatham has been assigned to the Birmingham Squadron, the team’s G League affiliate.
Cheatham, who went undrafted out of Arizona State in 2019, spent his rookie season on a two-way contract with the Pelicans. However, he appeared in just four NBA games for the club and was sent to Oklahoma City in a sign-and-trade for salary-matching purposes during the 2020 offseason.
He spent most of this season in the G League, splitting time with the Salt Lake City Stars and the Birmingham Squadron. Through 12 GL games (31.1 MPG), he averaged 15.3 PPG, 12.0 RPG, 2.2 APG, 1.3 SPG and 1.2 BPG on .571/.364/.733 shooting.
That performance earned Cheatham a 10-day contract with Miami just before Christmas, but he didn’t play at all for the Heat and entered the COVID-19 protocols before his deal expired. He has since cleared the protocols. A couple weeks later, he signed a 10-day hardship deal with Utah, appearing in one game for five minutes. His contract with Utah expired January 21.
Oni, 24, appeared in 80 games for the Jazz across three seasons, but never developed into a consistent, reliable rotation player. He averaged just 1.8 PPG and 1.4 RPG in 8.4 minutes per contest in those three years.
Utah sent Oni to Oklahoma City last month in order to reduce their projected end-of-season luxury tax payment. The Thunder were incentivized to make the deal because they got a future second-round pick out of it, but Oni wasn’t part of their on-court plans, so they ended up waiving him. After he cleared waivers, he became an unrestricted free agent.
Due to the deals coming via a hardship exception, they won’t count towards the Pelicans’ team salary for salary cap or luxury tax purposes.
The relationship between Jazz stars Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell is back to being “passively aggressively awkward,” ESPN’s Tim MacMahon stated in the latest episode of Brian Windhorst’s Hoop Collective podcast. Windhorst said he has heard the same thing, suggesting Gobert and Mitchell have gotten “under each other’s skin” and referring to it as “the most underplayed story in the league.”
Asked today about the report, Mitchell dismissed it, per Sarah Todd of The Deseret News: “No, no, no, no. We’re good. That’s not true. … I’m getting tired of answering (these questions) to be honest. Look, we put in the work, we’re leaders for our team, and we’re going through a tough stretch and that happens. But this is part of the business and that’s just how it goes.”
Rumors of tension between Gobert and Mitchell were at their height back in 2020 during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. We haven’t heard as much about the relationship since then — MacMahon says that when the Jazz have everyone healthy and are playing well, the issue “falls in the manageable category.”
Here are a few more highlights from Windhorst’s Hoop Collective podcast:
- As the trade deadline nears, the Pelicans have been “pretty active looking to buy,” according to Windhorst, who reports that New Orleans has talked to the Trail Blazers, Kings, Rockets, and Hawks about CJ McCollum, De’Aaron Fox, Eric Gordon, and Kevin Huerter, respectively. Windhorst adds that Josh Hart is believed to be among the players the Pelicans would move.
- Following up on Fox, Windhorst confirms that the Knicks have shown interest in the Kings‘ point guard and says that people around the league don’t really believe Sacramento is fully out of the Ben Simmons sweepstakes.
- Windhorst and MacMahon have both heard whispers that the Mavericks are talking to the Celtics about Marcus Smart, though MacMahon admitted he’s not sure whether those discussions have taken place as of late. “I can say with certainty that they’ve shown interest in Marcus Smart in the past,” MacMahon said. “I don’t know how much of that has been recent.”
- After stating earlier in the week that the Mavericks likely won’t move Jalen Brunson unless they get blown away by an offer, MacMahon repeated that point and applied it to Dorian Finney-Smith as well. MacMahon added that Brunson’s preference in free agency would be to stay in Dallas, but after earning a total of $6.1MM in his first four NBA seasons, the point guard’s top priority will be getting paid — he won’t be interested in taking a home-team discount.
- Windhorst, MacMahon, and ESPN’s Tim Bontemps all agreed – based on what they’ve heard – that the Grizzlies are unlikely to do anything significant at the trade deadline unless they get an opportunity that’s a “grand slam home run.”
- Pelicans big man Willy Hernangomez and guard Garrett Temple entered the NBA’s health and safety protocols on Thursday, per Christian Clark of NOLA.com (Twitter link). New Orleans now has three players in the protocols, with the two new additions joining injured wing Didi Louzada.
- Playing almost exclusively at power forward, Pelicans big man Jaxson Hayes racked up 19 points on 9-of-10 shooting on Monday vs. Cleveland. The performance prompted head coach Willie Green to say after the game that jumbo lineups with Hayes alongside center Jonas Valanciunas are “something we’re definitely going to explore” more going forward, per Christian Clark of NOLA.com.
Multiple reports in January indicated that the Pelicans would likely be buyers at the trade deadline, and there are no signs that has changed, according to Michael Scotto of HoopsHype. Scotto reports that New Orleans is expressing interest in several trade candidates, including Kings forward Harrison Barnes and Trail Blazers forward Robert Covington.
As previously relayed, the Pelicans have also been “repeatedly linked” to Rockets guard Eric Gordon and are said to be among the teams with interest in Pacers center Domantas Sabonis. Blazers guard CJ McCollum has also been cited by multiple reports as a player firmly on New Orleans’ radar.
Here are a few more updates on the Pelicans:
- Rival executives believe Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Jaxson Hayes are available in trade discussions, Scotto said on the latest episode of the HoopsHype Podcast. Multiple executives tell HoopsHype that the Pelicans are more willing to listen to inquiries about Alexander-Walker than they have been in the past.
- Noting that Josh Hart is a player worth keeping an eye on because of his strong play this season and his team-friendly contract structure, Scotto says the Hawks are among the teams that are fans of Hart.
- According to Jake Fischer of Bleacher Report, the Pelicans are believed to be revisiting a trade concept that they first discussed with the Kings in the 2021 offseason — the hypothetical deal would involve Barnes and Hart.