After agreeing to sign-and-trade Lonzo Ball to the Chicago Bulls Monday, the New Orleans Pelicans found a replacement point guard later in the day via another sign-and-trade. Per ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski, the Pelicans will send their lottery-protected 2022 first-round pick to the Charlotte Hornets for restricted free agent Devonte' Graham.
How will Graham fit replacing Ball in New Orleans? And were the Hornets wise to move on from Graham?
Pelicans get: Devonte' Graham
Hornets get: 2022 first-round pick (lottery-protected)
New Orleans Pelicans: B
Shooting is the primary skill Graham brings to a Pelicans team starved for it around Zion Williamson. Graham made 218 3-pointers in 2019-20, good for fifth in the league despite the Hornets not making the bubble restart, and was 14th last season when injuries limited him to 55 games. Graham isn't the most accurate shooter, having hit between 37% and 38% of his attempts both seasons, but succeeds in a volume game with a career average of 9.4 attempts per 36 minutes -- far more than Ball had averaged prior to jumping to 9.4 last season.
After operating as Charlotte's primary ballhandler in 2019-20, Graham played off the ball far more last season due to the arrival of LaMelo Ball. That experience will surely help him in New Orleans given the Pelicans' desire to put the ball in Williamson's hands for "Point Zion" to go along with Brandon Ingram isolations and Nickeil Alexander-Walker as a combo guard who likes to handle the ball.
Defensively, Graham will surely match up with the opposition's point guard most nights. His height (6-foot-1) is the primary knock on Graham, affecting him both defensively and as a finisher. Per NBA Advanced Stats, Graham's 41% shooting in the restricted area last season was lowest among any player with at least 50 attempts. Only one other player (Theo Maledon of the Oklahoma City Thunder) shot worse than 44%.
Because the Hornets played so much better with Graham on the court the last two seasons, particularly on defense, my three-year projection showed him as the seventh-most valuable player over that span in free agency. Getting him on a deal that pays barely more than the non-taxpayer midlevel exception could well be a bargain for New Orleans.
At the same time, given that the Pelicans are sending out a first-round pick, Graham basically needs to be a bargain to justify this trade. Lottery protection does mitigate some of the downside risk. I'd have preferred to simply retain Lonzo Ball (No. 4 in the same projections) at the price the Bulls paid. Failing that, a deal for Graham is a reasonable Plan B.
If New Orleans can fold this into the Ball sign-and-trade or the deal agreed to last week sending Steven Adams and Eric Bledsoe to Memphis, the Pelicans could remain over their cap and have the ability to re-sign Josh Hart using Bird rights and utilize their non-taxpayer midlevel exception, giving them more spending power.
Charlotte Hornets: B+
As reasonable as the price for Graham was, it's understandable the Hornets might've wanted to move on with both LaMelo Ball and Terry Rozier in the backcourt along with 2021 No. 11 pick James Bouknight. Charlotte more or less replaces the pick sent to the New York Knicks on draft night to take Kai Jones and has more cap flexibility going forward.
The question remains: What are the Hornets doing with their own $14 million-plus cap space? The answer to that question will help clarify whether Charlotte was right to make this deal.