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ATL receives: Solomon Hill, Cheick Diallo, 2019 first round lottery protected pick
NOP: Kent Bazemore
When healthy the New Orleans Pelicans are a playoff team, plain and simple. The problem is they haven’t been healthy, and they seriously lack the depth to stay afloat when that’s the case. Acquiring a player of Kent Bazemore’s ilk would help their stocks severely.
Bazemore is a capable 3-and-D shooting guard/wing that would plug in nicely in closing lineups alongside the likes of Davis, Holiday, Mirotic and co. Their depth at that position right now forces them to play Ian Clark and Darius Miller extended minutes. Granted they’ve gotten some value out of those guys but if you lessen their roles with the inclusion of Bazemore it would help the tremendously.
For the Hawks it makes sense to take on Hill and Diallo if it gets you a first rounder. Hill has only one more year on his deal beyond this season and Diallo’s money is negligible.
The addition of the Pelicans first rounder would leave Atlanta with three first round picks going into the 2019 draft: their own, Dallas’ (top-5 protected) and the Pelicans’. With the Dallas and New Orleans picks they could easily package those two to move up the draft in a similar vein to what Portland did in 2017. Portland had the 15th and 20th pick (which turned into Justin Jackson and Harry Giles) and packaged them to get the 10th pick which landed them Zach Collins.
New Orleans has shown willingness to trade their first rounders, as they did last year to get Mirotic. The Atlanta front office should be making calls to see if they can make history repeat itself.