NBA Trade Rumors: Pelicans Could Pull Trigger on KCP, Bazemore Before February Deadline

For the New Orleans Pelicans, much of the NBA trade rumor mill has been centered on Anthony Davis. However, there are other things to cover moving forward, such as beefing up the roster with Kentavious Caldwell-Pope or Kent Bazemore.

As mentioned in a previous post, the Pelicans will do everything to try and convince Davis to stay. And one way to do that is to get players who can complement and play alongside him. Trevor Ariza would have made sense, even if it is now moot, filling up the three spots for New Orleans. Furthermore, the fact that the Pelicans rank 28th in league bench points clearly indicate that head coach Alvin Gentry needs to get a move on and find players who can be effective when called in.

According to Hoops Rumors, KCP and Bazemore are just some of the names that the Pelicans are targeting. There is also Stanley Johnson, Justin Holiday, DeMarre Carroll and even the controversial J.R. Smith. The Pelicans badly need to get a player who can shoot from the outside and play good defense.

Caldwell-Pope and Bazemore do make sense, but getting them will be easier said than done. Other teams in need of a defense-oriented and three-point specialist molded into one are aplenty. Hence, New Orleans may need to enter a bidding war to snag either of the two.

But that is simply the reality of building a competitive squad. If they are to build a competitive team around Davis, they do have to invest big. As of this writing, the Pelicans can still make the playoffs with their 15-17 win-loss slate in the Western Conference. An immediate trade by February could change their fortunes.

Conversely, there is a chance that the trade for a player fit for that coveted position may not work out. Should nothing go down by February, Davis will likely start to weigh his options if his current team is unable to make the playoffs.

The Pelicans will need to decide on whether they would gamble or not moving forward. Davis has been linked to several teams, although this has been repeatedly scoffed by the player himself and the teams involved. The real drama begins in the summer when teams are expected to go all out and pitch to big names in the free agent market.