Brooklyn Nets Receive: F Brandon Ingram, C Jonas Valanciunas, 2023 First-Round Pick (LAL)
New Orleans Pelicans Receive: F Kevin Durant
With this New Orleans Pelicans trade, the Brooklyn Nets afford themselves a rare opportunity. Effectively, they’d be beginning and ending a rebuild in one transaction.
After all, a duo of Brandon Ingram and Ben Simmons gives them two stars in the 25-and-under club. Never mind Kyrie Irving. They could trade him separately, or alternatively, keep him on the roster and field a pretty competitive club next year.
Furthermore, that 2023 Lakers first-round pick from the Pelicans is a valuable asset. The Lakers are in a strange position: it’s hard to know where they’ll be after next season. The Nets make a compromise in the present to vastly improve their future with this move.
As for the Pelicans, they’re signaling to Zion Williamson that they’re very serious about winning right now with this move. Acquiring the 33-year-old Durant at the cost of Ingram and a first-round pick couldn’t send that message any more clearly.
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In fact, it could cost the Pelicans in the long run. Alternatively, a healthy Zion paired with Durant, CJ McCollum and more would have a limitless ceiling in 2022-23.
