The New Orleans Pelicans agreed to trade JJ Redick to the Dallas Mavericks on Thursday to avoid a possible buyout to the veteran shooting guard. Sources told ESPN’s Andrew Lopez that the Pelicans are sending Redick and Nicolo Melli to Dallas for James Johnson and Wes Iwundu, as well as a second round in 2021.
How much help can Redick Dallas offer, and how did New Orleans fare on this deal?
Kevin Pelton hands out trade figures for both teams.
The agreement
Getting Mavericks: JJ Redick, Nicolo Melli
Getting pelicans: James Johnson, Wes Iwundu, second round pick in 2021
Get more trading qualities from Pelton here
Last off-season, the Philadelphia 76ers acquired Seth Curry from the Mavericks for Josh Richardson, in part because they wanted to fill the void left by JJ Redick’s loss to free agency in 2019. Now, Dallas has traded for Redick in part for the remaining to fill the void. by losing Curry. Unfortunately, the cycle is unlikely to continue with the Pelicans trading for Curry next year.
The good news is that the Mavericks still have Richardson, allowing them to mix and match the two wings, along with Tim Hardaway Jr. and Dorian Finney-Smith, depending on the matchups. Shooting was a necessity for Dallas, which has dropped to the league average in terms of 3-point percentage after finishing 10th in 2019-20.
Despite his slow start to the season, Redick should help. After making six threes in the Pelicans’ season opener, Redick went 3rd of 26 (11.5%) over the next seven games, and his 3-point percentage was still below 30% when he was temporarily out of the game in late January. rotation was removed. . Since then, however, Redick has earned 46% of his 3’s in February and March. There’s no particular reason to expect him to be anything other than one of the league’s top shooters, health permitting.
About that: Redick hasn’t played since March 3, missed New Orleans’ last game before the All-Star break, and then underwent a nonsurgical procedure to relieve inflammation in his right heel. Information about Redick’s status was presumably an important part of trade negotiations.
In the end, the Mavericks didn’t give up much here. Iwundu and Johnson, who saw regular minutes early in the season, have fallen out of rotation lately as Dallas climbed out of an early hole to seventh in the West standings. The goal of the Mavericks is to pass one more team to avoid having to participate in the play-in tournament. They are currently 1.5 game behind the Portland Trail Blazers for sixth, two behind the Denver Nuggets for fifth, and four behind the Los Angeles Lakers.
Barring a loss in the play-in tournament, Dallas’s pick in the second round should land in the late 1940s or early 50s. Projections based on ESPN’s Basketball Power Index peg it on average 51st, meaning the Mavericks probably won’t miss out on the pick much.
In hindsight, it seems that the last low season was probably the right time to move Redick. The combination of his shooting and the injury likely helped erode a trading market that may have been more robust when Redick kicked off a strong campaign.
In the meantime it was worth it for the pelicans to take everything they could get in return. They didn’t necessarily miss Redick, he went 4-4 in his absence while young guards Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Kira Lewis Jr. picked up the extra minutes.
To keep them from going into the luxury tax by taking back Johnson’s contract, New Orleans also sent Melli with Redick to Dallas. Having often played alongside Zion Williamson as a 29-year-old rookie, Melli had seen just 241 minutes of action this season. The Pelicans are still close enough to the tax line that they will likely have to manage their 14th roster place by leaving it open between 10-day contracts to get around the tax.