New Orleans Pelicans: 3 trade possibilities for Nikola Mirotic

With the window of opportunity closing as the 2019 NBA Trade Deadline nears, a Nikola Mirotic trade is likely and could help supply the New Orleans Pelicans with assets.

This season has seemed to continue going from bad to worse for the New Orleans Pelicans. After tumbling out of the Western Conference playoff picture earlier in the season, the news last week that Anthony Davis wants out has spelled out an unavoidable rebuild for the franchise.

With the expectations of Davis to be dealt no later than the coming offseason, it serves the Pelicans’ best interest to flip their current role players for assets prior to the 2019 NBA Trade Deadline and move on from hopes of anything other than a decent lottery pick this season.

New Orleans isn’t blind to this, as it has been willing to listen to offers on their role players like Nikola Mirotic, Julius Randle and E’Twaun Moore. Out of the three, the most pressing to move would be Mirotic, for multiple reasons.

A trade for Mirotic should be of special interest to the Pelicans, as he is the only name of those three that is guaranteed to be a free agent in the coming offseason. Randle has a player option he could pick up for next season worth just over $9 million, and Moore is fully under contract through 2020.

With the way the modern NBA values floor-spacing bigs like Mirotic makes dealing him their best shot at getting a solid return. The Philadelphia 76ers, who were previously linked to Mirotic, just offered up multiple picks and a productive rookie in exchange for a similar type player in Tobias Harris.

The Pelicans have made it clear that their asking price for the stretch-4 is a first round pick, but with multiple teams coveting his services, there is a good chance the Pels could get what they want out of a deal.

Here are three trades that general manager Dell Demps and the New Orleans front office should pursue in order to get a solid return for Nikola Mirotic.