Nikola Mirotic and a 2nd-round pick are headed south to the New Orleans Pelicans and Omer Asik, Tony Allen, Jameer Nelson and future 1st-round pick coming back to the Chicago Bulls. The Bulls have also offered the option to swap 2nd-round picks in future draft.
The Details for the Bulls:
The Bulls are expected to waive Allen, according to KC Johnson, of the Chicago Tribune. With Kris Dunn being injured, Nelson will probably be asked to play real minutes for the Bulls initially but there is no way he will be on the team after this season. Asik, who will be kept and will play as a backup 5, until 2019-20 when he only has a $3 million guarantee.
The Details for the Pelicans:
The Pelicans will pick up Mirotic’s team option for $12.5 million for next season. This had been the sticking point in the trade prior to this is. Mirotic blocked a similar version of this trade just earlier this week because of this.
The Bulls will also send back to the Pelicans a second-round pick. And even further the teams will be able to swap second-round picks in 2021.
First Reaction:
It’s seems like a smart trade for both sides. With DeMarcus Cousins out, the Pelicans upgraded the frontcourt for the rest of this season and gives Anthony Davis some more spacing to work with. The Pelicans don’t need another defensive liability, but that is secondary.
The Pelicans have seemingly traded all of their recent first round picks, and losing another one hurts. Making the playoffs would hopefully drop the slot of the outgoing first-round pick, however, and make it more manageable to lose.
Getting off of Omer Asik’s horrendous contract is a huge win for the Pels as well. His dead-weight salary, which will pay him about $22 million over the next two seasons was weighing on the Pelicans for years.
With trading 3 players the Pelicans also have opened a roster spot for the newly unemployed Greg Monroe, a native to the New Orleans area.
For the Bulls it makes sense just to get Mirotic off the team. The locker room was uncomfortable with the incident with Portis still hanging over the team. Adding a mid-first round pick, especially one that could become a lottery pick, is a win for the Bulls’ front office.
It seems like it makes sense all around, except the Pelicans’ second round pick the Bulls gave back to them, for reasons unknown. It seems like another second round pick the Bulls didn’t value and just threw away. I feel like we’ve seen that come back to bite them before.
