The New Orleans Pelicans agreed to trade JJ Redick for the Dallas Mavericks on Thursday, avoiding a possible ransom for the game keeper. Sources told ESPN’s Andrew Lopez that the Pelicans sent Redick and Nicolo Melli to Dallas for strikers James Johnson and Wes Iwundu, as well as for a selection in the second round of 2021.
How much can Redick Dallas offer and how did New Orleans do in this deal?
Kevin Pelton shares commercial notes for both teams.
Understanding
Mavericks receive: JJ Redick, Nicolo Melli
Pelicans receive: James Johnson, Wes Iwundu, second round pick in 2021
Get more commercial notes from Pelton here
Outside of last season, the Philadelphia 76ers bought Seth Curry from the Mavericks for Josh Richardson, in part because they wanted to fill the shooting gap left by the loss of JJ Redick in the free agency in 2019. Now Dallas has partially changed. Redick to fill the remaining shooting gap with the loss of Curry. Unfortunately, the cycle will probably not continue with the trading of pelicans for Curry next year.
The good news is that the Mavericks still have Richardson, allowing them to mix and match the two wings with Tim Hardaway Jr. and Dorian Finney-Smith, depending on the matches. Photography was a necessity for Dallas, which dropped to the league average in terms of 3 percentage points after finishing 10th in 2019-20.
Despite his slow start to the season, Redick should help. After making six 3s at the start of the Pelicans season, Redick passed 3 of 26 (11.5%) in the next seven games, and his 3-point percentage was still below 30% when he was temporarily eliminated from rotation at the end of January. . Since then, however, Redick has won 46% of the 3 in February and March. There is no special reason to expect us to be anything other than one of the best shooters in the league, if health allows.
About that: Redick hasn’t played since March 3, missing the last game in New Orleans before the All-Star break and then undergoing a non-surgical procedure to relieve inflammation of his right heel. Information about Redick’s status was probably a key part of the trade negotiations.
In the end, the Mavericks didn’t give up much here. Iwundu and Johnson, who saw regular minutes at the start of the season, dropped out of the late rotation as Dallas came out of an early hole in seventh place in the Western standings. The goal for the Mavericks will be to pass another team to avoid participating in the play-in tournament. Currently, there are 1.5 games back at the Portland Trail Blazers for sixth place, two for the Denver Nuggets for fifth and four for the Los Angeles Lakers.
Except for a loss in the play-in tournament, the Dallas selection in the second round should land in the late 1940s or early 1950s. Projections based on ESPN’s basketball power rating average 51st, meaning the Mavericks are unlikely to miss the election.
In retrospect, it looks like the last off-season was probably the right time to move Redick. The combination of his downfall and injury probably contributed to the erosion of a commercial market that could have been more robust when Redick emerged from a strong campaign.
So far, it is worthwhile for the pelicans to take everything they could get in return. They didn’t necessarily miss Redick, going 4-4 in his absence, with young goalkeepers Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Kira Lewis Jr. taking over the extra minutes.
To avoid entering the luxury tax by taking Johnson’s contract, New Orleans also sent Melli with Redick to Dallas. After frequently playing as a 29-year-old debutant next to Zion Williamson, Melli has seen just 241 minutes of action this season. Pelicans are still close enough to the tax line that they will probably have to manage 14th place on the list, leaving it open between 10-day contracts to get rid of the tax.