5. New Orleans Pelicans
With stretch-4 Nikola Mirotic spreading the floor and Anthony Davis manning his true, devastatingly effective position at the 5, the New Orleans Pelicans — who stormed to a first round upset in the playoffs with that lineup — are in a good place. However, if they added Jimmy Butler to a core of AD and Jrue Holiday, they’d be in an even better place.
For the sake of spacing, that’d ideally revolve around departing with the newly signed Julius Randle, rather than Mirotic. To balance it out salary-wise, Solomon Hill would be included, while a first round pick would almost have to be thrown in to make the deal fair.
Randle is coming off a career year after averaging 16.1 points and 8.0 rebounds per game last season, and he could wind up being a nice fit next to a fellow Kentucky alum like KAT — assuming Towns moved to his inevitable position as a center and could actually hold down the fort there.
However, Randle doesn’t really spread the floor and Hill was completely useless last year, which means another wing and another 4 would more likely fall into Thibodeau’s sights:
In his scenario, the Pelicans get the third member of the Big 3, but at the cost of a solid two-way wing in E’Twaun Moore and their valuable floor-spacer, Mirotic. Perhaps Mirotic’s status as a free agent next summer convinces NOLA to part ways with him, but his fit alongside Davis in the frontcourt was terrific last year.
Maybe Randle could replace him at the 4, but he’d be best served coming off the bench as a small-ball 5 since he can’t shoot. In any case, the Pelicans probably don’t have the assets to pull off a trade like this, but man is an Anthony Davis-Jimmy Butler-Jrue Holiday core fun to think about.
For the sake of keeping AD happy and putting a legitimate title contender around him, it’s one the front office needs to think seriously about.