To give some non-PR thoughts on why I did this, and why I think the real Pels should do this (although they won’t):
1). They cant resign Boogie. Achilles injuries are bad stuff. Players simply don’t return to their prior form after them, and certainly not within a year. He’s getting a max deal from someone (more on that later). And if the Pels max him, they’ll be over the luxury tax with only ten players on their roster. They could go into the tax for a healthy Boogie, but not one who’s missing at least half the season. They’d miss the playoffs. It would also put them over the tax line the following season.
2) If they let Boogie walk, (or he just signs elsewhere) they still have no cap room to replace him. So that’s even worse. AD certainly wouldn’t be happy.
3) The solution to the above could be dumping bad salaries via trade. But the Pels have little to offer in order to dump contracts. Including Hield, they’ve traded away all their 1sts going back to Anthony Davis. 4 of their last 5 were traded on draft night or in advance of the draft. Trading a pick to get rid of an unaffordable contract isn’t going to advance this team.
4) Given that, I felt the Pels needed to trade Boogie. And ultimately, I like the players received to varying degrees. Clarkson can play on or off ball, which means he can play with any of the other guards in New Orleans backcourt. They already have a 3-guard starting rotation as is, and he’ll fit right in. I do like Nance a bit, especially as a defender and screen setter, which again fits well on that roster. Hart is a prospect more than someone who’s useful this year, but as mentioned above, the Pels don’t have those. But he has a reasonable chance to be a rotation piece in the next season or two.
5) I felt the Pels, as a franchise, need to make the playoffs to keep Davis happy. This keeps that possibility alive. With all the injuries they’ve had this year, they were down to 9 usable players (2-way players and 10-day contract types regularly dress). Getting two healthy contributors really mattered a lot. They were also about a million shy of the hard cap, so shedding some payroll does give them additional flexibility to make more trades before the deadline. Are they going to win a title? Obviously not. Those hopes (slim as they were) ended last night. Standing pat would end playoff hopes too, and that seemed like the wrong thing to do for a 27-21 team that’s been in the lottery for most of the decade.
6) There weren’t many, if any, other teams to trade with. I did have conversations with other teams, even before the injury, and Boogie’s free agency was mentioned every time, with multiple people suggesting he’d wind up in LA. Accordingly, the Lakers could offer the most. It was a rough hand to be dealt, and it wasn’t where I thought I’d be 24 hours earlier. I do think the Pels need to do a trade like this or commit themselves to going far into the luxury tax with an injured Cousins. They can’t just dip their toe in next year, or make trades to avoid it. It’s all or nothing.
7) This trade doesn’t force the AD decision right now. If an offer that can’t be refused comes along, the Pelicans can pull the trigger. But they can still keep trying to be competitive around AD in the meanwhile.