These three teams make sense as a new home for embattled New Orleans Pelicans guard Jordan Hawkins.
The New Orleans Pelicans have one more task they must accomplish this offseason: trading Jordan Hawkins. It's something they already wanted to do, but signing Bennedict Mathurin has made it a must.
At worst, the Pelicans can just cut Hawkins, stretch his contract over a couple of years, and call it a day. They would much rather trade him, though, and not have to deal with the money in the future.
Hawkins' career got off to a quick start in New Orleans, but it started to go downhill fairly quickly. His sophomore campaign was rough, and then this past year was even worse.
The former No. 14 overall pick still has a pretty stroke, though his shots haven't been falling consistently. Perhaps a change of scenery after the frustration of the past two seasons could do him well.
In just his seventh career game, Hawkins hit seven threes. There are games where he looks like a real contributor, they are just few and few between. That could have to do with the fact that his minutes are far from consistent either.
Surround him with some defense and playmaking, allow him to just go out there and score, and a team could maybe unlock something. Here are a couple of squads that make sense as a potential landing spot:
Memphis Grizzlies
The Grizzlies have been the team most publicly connected to Hawkins via reports. There had been murmurs of a potential swap including AJ Johnson, but the Pelicans don't really have much use for him anymore after picking up Bennedict Mathurin.
Memphis mostly makes sense because if they are building around Cedric Coward, then Hawkins would fit well next to him on paper, providing some extra spacing.
Sacramento Kings
The Kings need anything to help their offense after how putrid it was last year. They did add Darius Acuff Jr., which should be fun, but they could use another shooting option off their bench.
Sacramento was dead last in three-point shots at just over 30 a game as a team. Part of shooting is just getting up shots. It makes defenses respect the perimeter and opens things up for their team as a whole. Domantas Sabonis had the worst year of his career at the rim last season, and that was no accident.
Dallas Mavericks
Though the Mavericks still have Kyrie Irving around, they have also embraced a bit of a reshuffling as they focus on Cooper Flagg. They have defense, rebounding, size and a ton of options on the wing. They could use another guard off the bench who can provide a boost. They were already a poor shooting team last year, and seemingly have less of it now without Klay Thompson.
