Should the New Orleans Pelicans explore a trade for Dallas Mavericks forward PJ Washington?
The New Orleans Pelicans are still looking for ways to improve this roster, but are running out of resources and options. Their best chance is likely to come on the trade market, whether it be a normal deal or a "sign-and-trade."
They have a couple of salary-filler contracts to go along with the potential of using future draft assets, which might scare fans. If they want to get better right now, though, they'll have to sacrifice something.
One option that has popped up on the market recently is Dallas Mavericks forward PJ Washington. The Mavericks intend to go all-in on the Cooper Flagg era, and seem to want to move on from a couple of their veteran contracts from the previous group.
The Mavericks have also loaded up with players who accomplish similar things. They've added Morez Johnson Jr., Zaccharie Risacher, Santi Aldama and just extended Naji Marshall. Their wanting to get off that money and open up minutes could help the Pelicans get a player that checks their boxes at a good price.
Last season, Washington put up 14.2 points, 7.0 rebounds and 1.8 assists on 45.0/32.5/68.7 shooting splits. He was a little bit better from three the season before at 38.1% on a similar output. Now seven years into his career, he has remained fairly consistent. He can rebound, is active on defense and space the floor a little bit at forward.
This accomplishes a couple of things that New Orleans is trying to do this offseason, which would make him a great addition, at least in theory. They had been looking at other forwards like Ziaire Williams and Spencer Jones, so it's clearly something they want to do.
Washington isn't a perfect player; most of the issues stem from offensive efficiency, but that doesn't really matter for the Pelicans. They have set their sights on fixing the defense, and bringing the Mavericks forward to their bench would move them further in the right direction.
New Orleans could also revisit this towards the trade deadline if Washington doesn't get moved and they can't find an extension for Saddiq Bey, because there could be some conflict when they're in the rotation together. They are kind of opposites, though, so they could complement the lineup differently depending on the matchup.
Washington signed a four-year, $88.76 million extension last year. He's making just under $20 million this season. His salary will never climb above 12.8% of the cap.
