Ja Morant?!? Can the Pelicans CAPITALIZE on Memphis’ Roster Shakeup and Swing a Big Trade?

Ja Morant?!? Can the Pelicans CAPITALIZE on Memphis’ Roster Shakeup and Swing a Big Trade?

the New Orleans Pelicans need to be on the phone calling the Memphis Grizzlies about a Jarant trade right now especially after Memphis traded away Desmond Bane It’s the Monday episode of Locked On Pelicans Let’s go You are Locked On Pelicans your daily New Orleans Pelicans podcast part of the Locked Onet Your team every day Welcome to another edition of Locked On Pelicans the daily podcast covering your favorite team the New Orleans Pelicans and NBA part of the Lockdown Podcast Network Your team every day available wherever you get your podcast and available on YouTube I’m your host Pelicans Insider credential member of the media Jake Madison at Nola Jake on Twitter Here with y’all on this Monday We are inching closer to the draft We’re going to have a lot of draft coverage on the show this week but oh boy there was a big deal that went down in the NBA on Sunday Happy belated Father’s Day to everybody by the way Maybe your day was taken up reacting to this trade of the Memphis Grizzlies trading away Desmond Bane to the Orlando Magic There’s a knock-on effect in multiple ways for the Pelicans We’re going to break it all down in today’s episode of Locked On Pelicans Today’s episode of Locked on Pelicans is brought to you by FanDuel Right now new customers can get $200 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins And of course thank you for making Locked on Pelicans your first listen today and every day We are here Monday through Friday the number one Pelicans podcast covering everything you want to know about this Pelicans team So please subscribe wherever you get your podcast and join over 11,000 Pelicans fans on YouTube as well And you can now watch Locked On Pelicans on the GF Coast Sports and Entertainment Network at 10:30 a.m every single weekday channel 7.1 here in New Orleans This is actually the first episode I believe that is on there So if you’re watching in that capacity thank you for making Lockdown Pelicans part of your day We’ve got a whole 2-hour lockdown block on GF Coast Sports and Entertainment Network which I think is a super cool thing So give it a chance that way By the way if you have an office something like that where there’s a TV on keep it on GF Coast Sports and Entertainment from noon or sorry from 10 until noon every day Get more people watching the show that way So let’s get into it The big news of the day and how this impacts the Pelicans is that the Memphis Grizzlies traded away Desmond Bane to the Orlando Magic for Cole Anthony Contavis Cwell Pope three first round picks and one first round pick swap And at first my goodness is that an overpay and we’ll get into that a little bit more in the next segment because it kind of sets the floor for a Trey Murphy the third or Herb Jones trade I think But does that mean that the Memphis Grizzlies are rebuilding look I’m I’m admittedly a big big time Desmond Bane fan I think that guy is really good I think he’s a borderline all-star Has allNNBA potential in my opinion I think he is that good of a player For his career he’s averaged 17.8 points per game He for his career get this 41% from three on over six attempts per game Basically last year was a downyear shooting for him and he shot 39% Um 6.1 rebounds 5.3 assists 1.2 steals A lot of people are going to kind of compare this to Trey Murphy the third and we’ll get into it Desmond Bane basically averages more points rebounds and assists than Trey Murphy does And Desmond Bane is a guard Think about that when it comes to the rebounding part And he’s a good defender in my opinion Trey might have a higher ceiling but I I honestly think Desmond Bane might be a better player right now Now that might change after this coming year and their contracts need to be a factor into it but I’m a big Desmond Bane guy I think this is a fantastic move for the Orlando Magic And look Contavius Cobalt Pope is fine down year in Orlando last year right you know Cole Anthony is fine as a backup point guard and those picks are something right you get the 16th pick in this draft You have the Suns pick but there’s some stipulations on it next year Then you get an unprotected first round pick and a swap The picks aren’t incredible here but you at least get it in volume if you don’t get a singular good pick out of this And that’s kind of the path to making a deal work like this So if this is what Memphis is doing and they this trade’s done they’re a worse team now than they were a day ago So does that mean that team is rebuilding and look I’m not entirely sure that they are Let’s be upfront about that right now They traded you know their ceiling right now for more flexibility which can be a really important thing but they are a worse team But if they are rebuilding I’m not convinced they are At the very least New Orleans needs to call about John Marant right now and just try and get a deal done Look this Desmond Bane trade provides the framework for kind of every deal going forward for the most part Orlando managed to keep Jaylen Suggs out of this trade So we’re going to use that as a blueprint for two John Morant trades here And look you’re going to have to give up stuff John Morant you could argue is a better player than Desmond Bane has a higher ceiling than Desmond Bane even if John has his problems And trading for him would be a risky proposition for New Orleans Certainly you know this is someone who’s only played over 70% of the games uh once I think in his career Basically he misses a lot of time He’s not a good three-point shooter either 31.6% from three And he can be very turnoverprone at times Every single season he has averaged over three turnovers per game There’s a lot to like about John Morant There’s a lot not to like about John Morant as well Truthfully 50 games last year nine the year before 61 before that 57 Right this is someone who’s never played 70 games in an NBA season But when he plays he can be a differencemaker and a very talented player He’s not an elite defender or anything like that So here’s two options when it comes to a trade First is under this league new year so before the draft let’s call it CJ McCullum Herb Jones for John Morant and Brandon Clark You also need to include the seventh pick this year in that deal and the Indiana pick next year and a future unprotected pick or a pick swamp Something like that Basically two firsts and one like bad first in a sense And I think that Pacers pick next year could be a bad first two most likely But here look you you’re matching the salary with CJ McCullum You’re including a good player in Herb Jones as much as it pains me to trade away Herb Jones and you’re including the seventh pick You know while you might not throw the same amount of volume that you would to the Memphis Grizzlies as they got in Desmond Bane here the pick of number seven is much more quality and it lets them do their rebuild here And now all of a sudden you’re starting you know Trey Murphy in the starting lineup Zion in there too John Morant as well and you can kind of figure it out from there That’s a trade that I would be looking at That’s a trade that I think you could convince Memphis to do The other trade would be under next league’s new year So after July 1 and this is where it gets a little bit more interesting This is CJ McCullum Deontay Murray Herb Jones for John Mar Brandon Clark John Konchar and then an assigning trade Marvin Bagley III And you’re going to need to include more first round picks partially because Dejonte Murray if you can get off of him in this deal would be really smart for New Orleans and kind of fixing their books here a little bit right he’s a negative asset so you’re going to need to attach more to basically just get off of him Contavius Caldwell Pope who I believe is an expiring in this trade from Orlando is considered a negative asset So basically Orlando was going to need to include more just to offload his contract even though his contract and him as a player makes more sense to the Memphis Grizzlies So if you’re putting in someone like DeJonte Murray who’s got two more years basically 60 million total after next season you’re going to need to attach stuff to it That’s the path forward to getting John Morant you’re probably going to need to include Herb Jones in this deal in both of them It’s just the matter of the number of picks you want to include And you can argue over that and I would listen Maybe in that first trade you don’t need to include Herb Jones if you’re including the seventh pick You could convince me of that too But if Murray’s in there you’re going to need to include Herb Jones and more picks because that is how rough I think it is with that Murray contract and him basically missing the first half of this upcoming season I don’t love this trade Either of these deals I don’t particularly love I think that is rich for a risky player Desmond Bane is not a risky player in my opinion John Morant is I would have done that some sort of trade like this for Desmond Bane Personally I think he is that good of a player Big Desmond Bane guy If you can’t uh if you don’t understand yet you know he’s played a number of games He tends to be pretty healthy He kind of fits on every single team But as long as you’re not giving up Trey Murphy the third in a John Morant deal I think you can get it done It gives just an elite point guard to pair with Zion Williamson And if you’re going to go for it just go for it And look you’re going to have to overpay to go and get your guy just as Orlando overpaid to go and get their guy And speaking of overpay look this sets the floor for Trey Murphy the third and herb Jones And then you’re going to be like wait why why are you including him in the trade if the floor is this kind of deal i’ll explain why That’s coming up here next in today’s episode of Locked On Pelicans Today’s episode of Locked On Pelicans is brought to you by Monarch Money You ever check your bank account and go 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locked on MBA for half off your first year And thank you for making Locked On Pelicans your first listen today and every day We’re here Monday through Friday the number one Pelicans podcast covering everything you want to know about this Pelicans team So please subscribe wherever you get your podcast and join over 11,000 Pelicans fans on YouTube as well and become an everydayer That means you listen Monday through Friday to the Locked on Pelicans podcast whether that’s on YouTube wherever you get your podcast And now on the GF Coast Sports and Entertainment Network for your second listen look we’re getting close to the draft That means you’ve got to be listening to the Locked On Big Board podcast It’s there five days a week making sense of all the biggest rumors NBA workouts uh player comps all of those with host Raphael Barlo who I’m hoping to get on the show this week Go check out Locked on NBA Big Board wherever you get your podcasts All right let’s let’s talk about this setting the floor for trades going forward right it takes one domino to fall We figured it might be Kevin Durant and then this trade kind of comes out of nowhere is a pretty big blockbuster in my opinion Desmond Bane’s a real good player and this tends to set the market for everyone else Desmond Bane is in the same kind of category as Trey Murphy less so Herb Jones but pretty much about the same as Trey Murphy I do think Desmond Bane is a slightly better player especially on both sides of the ball when you’re factoring in defense right the fact that he is five inches shorter than Trey Murphy but averages more rebounds you know even per 36 minutes than Trey Murphy the third does I think really says something about Desmond Bane per 36 minutes right he averaged 20 21.7 points per game last year seven rebounds and six assists while making almost three threes per game in a down shooting year Again he’s a career 41% shooter from three in five seasons The dude is fantastic and he’s a good defender right but his contract’s not as good as Trey Murphy’s You want guys to be lower the better right next year Desmond Bane is going to make $36.7 million That’s essentially 11.5 million more Let’s make the numbers easy Than Trey Murphy That matters Your contract matters And though Bane is under contract in the future Trees at starting at 25 million next year makes him maybe more appealing to teams because it’s easier to get that deal done Herb Jones on his really good contract is limited by his offense but the contract is really good The defense is elite So he’s going to command a lot when you look at those two things and him making the money that he’s making significantly less than everyone that we’ve mentioned so far So you know when you look at the deal for Desmond Bane it it’s an overpay It’s an overpay While I love Desmond Bane basically four first round picks is a lot Cole Anthony is not going to fetch you a first round pick right neither is Contavius Cowwell Pope You probably have to attach assets to move him and they did in this sort of thing But then you kind of get into this deal and one the picks don’t look amazing right you know and that’s where I think this gets interesting You know if you’re the Orlando Magic and you’re giving up those picks for a guy like Desmond Bane that fits perfectly I don’t really care And so this is kind of how I look at it with the Pelicans giving a lot for John Morant You know if this is your guy go and get him even if it means you have to overpay especially in a non-glamour or desirable market like Orlando is not one The Pelicans aren’t one either So go and get your guy even if you have to overpay a little bit The everydayers of the show have heard me say this for a while And when you get into those picks especially the ones that don’t look amazing right these are all in the back half of the first round Those aren’t valuable picks When you look at all-star level players right and I think Desmond Bane is a borderline all-star John Marine is an all-star When you look at those type of players they are predominantly drafted in the lottery particularly in the top five of the draft Yes there are some outliers that get picked in the 20s right late 20s early 20s There are some Herb Jones and others that get picked in the second round Desmond Bane was the 30th pick in the draft right there are guys that are outliers that that get selected but you don’t want to bank on an outlier situation So with all of those plethoras of picks that you get in a deal like this you hope one of them becomes Desmond Bane So you’re just if you’re Memphis I get why you did this because it gives you more flexibility This is not about a rebuild This is more about flexibility for them In my opinion you hope one of those picks works out for being a Desmond Bane If New Orleans were to trade Trey Murphy for the same type of package you hope one of those picks becomes a Trey Murphy or a Herb Jones And if that’s the case why do it you know immediately people asked me would you take this package for Trey Murphy or Herb Jones and my answer is no Like no I wouldn’t Maybe for Herb I would I think I would value Trey Murphy the third a little bit higher than Herb but Herb’s one of my favorite players on the team if not my favorite player So no If if you hope that one of those picks turns into the player that you’re trading away like why would you do this now if you’re going through a full rebuild if you’re the Mavericks and you’re building around Cooper Flag yeah maybe you should trade away Anthony Davis Sure or even if you’re the Pelicans and you’re going to build around the seventh pick and it’s Jeremiah Fears or an Ace Bailey maybe you go and do that But if you’re trying to compete maybe not Right now Memphis has a good argument for it because they looked at their roster and realized they needed flexibility over continuity and that this roster just probably wasn’t going to go in the directions that they wanted it to go So they made this kind of move They’re going to look to trade Contavius Calwell Pope later and add first round picks to him to get something better right that’s what they’re going to look to try and do You might look to move Cole Anthony plus some first round picks to get a third star that you think was just not Desmond Bane or you just needed to do something different Right their GM at the his end of season media availability was like “Yeah this wasn’t good enough and we got to make some big changes.” And this is the first step of those big changes This is not the big move for him The big move is coming later This is the move that sets up the future kind of moves So New Orleans could maybe do something like that You trade away a Trey Murphy to get more flexibility to get someone better than Trey Murphy let’s say But that’s a risk right you have a bird in hand with Trey Murphy And the difference between Trey Murphy here and Desmond Bane is you’ve got John Morant and Jiren Jackson Jr as your one and two and Bane was kind of your third guy who acted like a lead guy two years ago and was phenomenal Trey Murphy is the number two on the Pelicans right now behind Zion Williamson Right Again if they traded Zion Williamson away and we’re looking to go through a full-on rebuild I could see this being entirely different but that’s not the case You know if you’re trying to go and compete I don’t love the idea of making your roster worse at this period in time Or at least wait and see who’s available at seven and see how that maybe allows you to pivot in a different way Look if Fiars is there or if Ace Bailey falls and I think there’s a chance even if it’s unlikely maybe that’s the direction you go in Oh boy that really changes everything for you But if you want to go and compete don’t make your roster worse So you know when the reports are out there that like it’s going to take a massive offer like yeah it was always going to take a massive offer right and look I I don’t think Memphis is going to trade John Mar but it means New Orleans should at least call and try because we’ve seen no one’s untradeable at this point in time So this sets the floor minimum for Trey Murphy less so for Herb Jones but it’s in the realm of things And it still doesn’t mean that I’m going to take either one of those trades if they were presented because I just don’t want to see the team take a step back if they’re trying to compete If you’re going to take a step back go through a full rebuild but that’s not what they’re going to do So taking a trade like this for Trey Murphy would be very shortsighted in my opinion And those picks don’t excite me because you hope they become a Trey Murphy There’s a chance none of those picks pan out and you look back at this deal and you’re like “Oh wow They gave him up for nothing.” and you’ve got to risk that sort of thing and you’ve got to balance that and figure it out To me that says just keep your good player Do you agree do you disagree let me know in the comments down below We got a new report about the Pelicans trying to trade up but not for Ace Bailey this time Finally let’s look at that one Dylan Harper anybody that’s coming up here next in today’s episode of Locked On Pelicans Today’s episode of Locked On Pelicans is brought to you by FanDuel We got maybe three more games of the NBA Finals and you’re just getting highlightworthy performances major momentum swings and can’t miss moment So whether it’s a game-winning shot from Tyrese Hallebertton Shay Gilis Alexander leading the the Thunder to a win late in the game There’s never been a better time to get in on the action And in FanDuel makes it easy to stay in the game before tip off and live with player props performance trends same game parlays Fans have more ways than ever to play smart and win big Thunder are nine and a half point favorites in game What are we up to five in Oklahoma City Feels like a lot but also the spreads have been kind of dead on in this 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wherever you get your podcast the pick where I do seven is going to be here in my feed as well So let’s wrap up the show with a rumor that yeah sure but don’t read too much into this one This one comes from Sam Amo who admittedly I don’t know how plugged in he is and this is not I don’t mean this as a shot This is just not someone I I I trust like some of the other names that are out there Let’s leave it at that right like I think there’s other people that when they say something I’m like “Oh I’m listening.” There’s some people that I’m 50/50 on when it comes to that Some people I don’t pay attention to at all Mo’s somewhere in there He’s not in that group where I’m like “Oh you got to listen You got to pay attention when he says something.” That’s something And he reported that the Pelicans have called the San Antonio Spurs about the second pick It was like a third-hand thing It was like I heard from another executive that the Pelicans called right so he’s not citing the Spurs or the Pelicans as kind of the direct source on that So keep that in mind too Yeah this checks out This makes tons of sense Here’s the thing The Pelicans probably called the Mavericks about the first overall pick I’m not reporting that Don’t aggregate that that sort of thing But I’ll bet every team has done that I bet every team that’s interested in trading up to the second overall pick has called the San Antonio Spurs It’s not really called It’s like an assistant text somebody over there being like “What you think here?” And then like nothing comes from it right just cuz you called and tried doesn’t mean it went anywhere This is how GMs and others kind of get some like plausibil like plausible deniability of like yeah we called but nothing happened from it right or like an official offer was never made when it’s like you called like would you do this and it’s like is that is that your final offer well we don’t know like well what no we didn’t make an official offer for this player but we called about him Right like that’s how this kind of works and how this you know often goes when it comes to it This goes back to that report of there’s no untouchables on the Pelicans team and that they were fielding calls about their players To me this is Joe Dumar’s in that front office doing exactly what they should be doing in my opinion Perfect Good This is what they should be doing You should call about trying to trade up for number two realize you’re not going to pay the price it would take or that the Spurs just aren’t going to move out of that spot anyway and you move on to other things That’s a lot of thunder So yeah good The fact that this report out there means Joe Dumar is doing his job right we were concerned about him take stepping into the role This says I’m I’m honestly hearing these rumors these reports make me less concerned about him some of them right hearing that no one is untouchable Good You just had a 21 win season No one necessarily should be untouchable Maybe people have an insanely high price tag but that’s different than no one is untouchable right so hearing all of that good Like good I mean that That’s exactly how it should be and what you want this team doing The NBA is hyper competitive right now Hyper competitive Look at Orlando making an all-in kind of move which I love for them They look like an Eastern Conference final contender right now A team that could make the NBA Finals at least on paper they’re going full send going for it in a wideopen Eastern Conference after the you know injury to um Jason Tatum and how much time that he’s going to miss all of next season for the Boston Celtics You’ve got to like realize if you can make your team better and you want to go for it do it That means mortgaging the future a little bit It means trading certain things away I absolutely love hearing these reports these rumors about the Pelicans because it’s absolutely what they should be doing So this when you hear these rumors even if nothing comes from it right of course they’ve called They’ve probably called about other a million other things at this point in time And I like that I like that I like that I like that It means they’re trying to find ways to improve the roster or time their window better or just get better in some capacity It’s what we all want to see this team do compete at the highest level And them trying to figure out how to do that That’s a good sign in my opinion for the team So I’m all for them calling even if it doesn’t amount to anything But I don’t really think them getting the second overall pick is truthfully that realistic at this point in time Unless you’re going to kind of reset your timeline in which case yeah that’s when you can trade away guys like Trey Murphy Herb Jones and all of that We’ll see though You know we’ve still got about 10 days or so to the NBA draft I will be live on draft night both on GF Coast Sports and Entertainment Network on Fox 8 and on um Locked On Pelicans on the YouTube page We’ll do a live show basically like immediately after the pick is done I will be at the Pelicans facility Um and we’ll go live on YouTube from the Pelicans facility after the pick is made to break that down and then any other deals or things like that that get done It’s going to be a really fun night I’m really looking forward to it We’ll probably try and pull some guests on the show as well So that’s going to do it for this episode of Lockdown Pelicans I appreciate y’all See y’all next time

Pelicans trade rumors heat up after Desmond Bane deal. Is Ja Morant the next big target?

Jake Madison analyzes the Desmond Bane trade to Orlando and explores potential Ja Morant scenarios for New Orleans. The discussion covers how these moves might impact Trey Murphy III and Herb Jones, while examining the Pelicans’ draft strategy. Madison breaks down trade packages, player comparisons, and the competitive landscape of the NBA.

Tune in for expert insights on the Pelicans’ options and how recent trades could reshape the team’s future.

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