The New Orleans Pelicans made a cost-cutting move Tuesday morning, but the piece that stings most isn’t the draft capital. It’s Micah Peavy.
According to ESPN’s Shams Charania, the Pelicans are sending Jordan Hawkins, Peavy, a future second-round pick and a second-round pick swap to the Memphis Grizzlies in exchange for AJ Johnson and Taj Gibson. The deal comes as New Orleans looks to trim salary after picking up Hawkins’ $7-plus million team option ahead of last season and then needing to duck the tax after signing Bennedict Mathurin.
On paper, the second-round picks are part of the price of a straight salary dump. In reality, losing Peavy may be the tougher pill to swallow, especially with Jamahl Mosley now in charge. Peavy had a promising rookie year, appearing in 61 games while averaging 4.3 points per game and shooting 38.5 percent from the field and 25.9 percent from three.
The box score doesn’t tell the whole story. Peavy’s value showed up on defense, where he flashed elite anticipation, fluid hips and the kind of point-of-attack resistance that can bother guards and wings alike. He forced turnovers, got stops and consistently showed the traits of a player who can survive - and matter - without needing the ball in his hands.
That matters on this roster. New Orleans has plenty of players who can score and plenty who are at their best creating with the ball.
What the Pelicans didn’t have much of, outside of Herb Jones, was someone Mosley could trust to regularly stack stops on the perimeter. Peavy was the closest thing to that, and now he’s gone.
There’s also more to his offensive game than the rookie numbers suggest. At summer league in Las Vegas this year, Peavy averaged 12.5 points and 3.0 assists per game while shooting 50 percent from three on three attempts per game. With that kind of outside shooting growth to go with the connective passing and basketball IQ he already showed, he had a path to becoming exactly the kind of low-maintenance role player this team could use.
Second-round picks rarely move the needle in the modern NBA, and the Pelicans already found one in Peavy last offseason. They had to move Hawkins, and the decision to pick up his option is its own debate. Still, there’s a real argument that New Orleans would have been better off giving up another second-round pick than moving on from a player who fit what Mosley needs so well.
The Pelicans clearly don’t see it the same way. That’s their call. But if perimeter defense remains a problem this season, this trade is going to look a lot harder to defend than it does right now.
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