New Orleans Pelicans fans have spent plenty of the offseason chasing one shiny trade idea after another, and the latest name to catch fire is Brooklyn Nets forward Michael Porter Jr.
That buzz makes sense on the surface. Porter Jr. is coming off a career year in Brooklyn, where he put up 24.2 points, 7.1 rebounds and 3.0 assists per game while knocking down 36.3 percent of his threes on more than nine attempts a night.
At 6-foot-10, he brings the kind of size-and-shooting package that jumps off the page, especially for a Pelicans team that has struggled to shoot the three-ball over the last several years. He also owns a championship ring from Denver’s 2023 title run and has been consistently strong in the postseason.
But the more you dig into the fit, the less sense it makes for New Orleans.
Porter Jr. is on a one-year, $40.8 million contract, and the Nets have not been able to work out a long-term extension with him. That’s the first red flag for any team considering a deal.
If the Pelicans brought him in, they’d be stepping right into the same question Brooklyn is wrestling with now: what is MPJ really worth? In a league shaped by the current cap and apron, extending a player in his mold is a tricky business.
There’s a version where the money works out fine, but if his production dips even a little, the move could make roster-building around him much harder.
The other concern is simpler and harder to ignore: health.
Porter Jr. has been largely available over the last two seasons, but his injury history still hangs over him, and he ended last season sidelined with a hamstring issue. That’s the kind of detail that matters when a team is thinking about committing long term.
The biggest reason to pause, though, is that the Pelicans already have someone who covers a lot of the same ground. Trey Murphy III gives New Orleans similar scoring and shooting upside, is two years younger and is already on a great contract.
Pairing Murphy III with Porter Jr. on the wings sounds like a dream for Zion Williamson spacing the floor, but the price of getting there would be steep. Depleting the roster for a player who would need a new deal, is nearing the back half of his prime and carries a troubling injury history is not the kind of move New Orleans should be rushing toward.
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Pelicans Cannot Afford To Solve Their Center Need This Way
The Pelicans search for help at center is starting to feel like one of the defining questions of their roster build, and Jarrett Allen has naturally come up as a name worth considering. He would bring size, rim protection and a more established presence in the middle, which is exactly the kind of upgrade New Orleans has lacked when the frontcourt gets squeezed against stronger opponents.
But the fit is not just about basketball, and that is where the conversation gets tricky. Allens track record against elite teams raises some doubt, while the cost of getting him in a deal would be steep because of his contract and the price Cleveland would likely demand. A straight swap built around Trey Murphy III does not appear realistic either, which leaves the Pelicans weighing whether this kind of center solution is too expensive for what it actually solves. [Read more 🡒]