NEW ORLEANS — The trade did not appear significant on the surface. Jordan Hawkins and Micah Peavy were sent to Memphis, while AJ Johnson and Taj Gibson came to New Orleans in return. The two franchises also exchanged a pair of future second-round picks, moves that initially looked more like roster housekeeping than a transaction capable of reshaping a team.
But the trade, completed Monday, was the move that made everything else possible.
Forty-eight hours later, the New Orleans Pelicans had their wing. Bennedict Mathurin, the 24-year-old forward who spent more than three seasons establishing himself as a reliable rotation player before reaching a point where he appeared to have outgrown his situation, is officially a Pelican. The sides agreed in late August to a two-year, $16 million contract with a player option for the second season. The agreement was formalized only after New Orleans created the necessary financial room to complete it.
The Pelicans are hard-capped at the first apron, a consequence of earlier roster decisions that placed strict limits on how the franchise could construct its 2026-27 roster. Bringing Mathurin to New Orleans therefore required more than an agreement on salary and contract length. It required a series of cap moves, including waiving Gibson, whose contract was not fully guaranteed, to create nearly $3.8 million in additional financial flexibility.
Hawkins, the 14th overall selection in the 2023 NBA Draft, became another part of the cost. He averaged eight points in 18.2 minutes over three inconsistent seasons in New Orleans without securing a permanent role in the rotation. Moving him, along with Peavy and the other pieces involved in the trade, ultimately gave the Pelicans the room they needed to complete the Mathurin signing.
New Orleans did not hesitate.
The Pelicans had pursued Mathurin for more than a year, according to Bleacher Report. They tracked him when he was still a Pacer in Indiana. They tracked him through the deadline trade to the Clippers. They wanted the player who averaged 17.6 points, 5.4 rebounds, and 2.4 assists last season, all career highs, across 54 combined games with two franchises. Those numbers told one version of his story. Three rosters before 25 told another.
That second version is the one New Orleans is betting will end differently.
Mathurin entered the league as the sixth overall pick out of Arizona in 2022, a Montreal-born wing with the foot speed to run in transition and the length to contest at the rim. Indiana saw real potential. The Pacers also saw a player whose half-court efficiency lagged behind his athleticism and whose handle under pressure remained a concern. They moved him at the deadline. The Clippers used him for 16 games and declined to bring him back. Both franchises found him easier to release than to commit to.
The Pelicans made the opposite call.
The Hawkins side of this exchange carries its own weight. Memphis acquires a former lottery pick who never solved the problem of his own inconsistency. Hawkins shot 37.1% from three-point range over three Pelicans seasons, a number that sold the idea of a reliable floor spacer. His inability to sustain that level over full stretches told a more complicated story. The Grizzlies, still building around Ja Morant and a developing core, have the roster space and the patience to find out what Hawkins becomes when given a clearer role. They are betting on ceiling, which is different from expecting production.
AJ Johnson, heading the other direction to New Orleans, averaged 4.9 points in 14.2 minutes across stints with Milwaukee, Washington, and Dallas. He is a developmental piece and his value in this deal was largely architectural: the cap math needed a body that fit, and Johnson fit. As for Taj Gibson, the 17-year veteran arriving from Memphis alongside him, New Orleans is expected to waive him to complete the salary clearance. His numbers across more than 1,100 career games are a matter of record. His role in this transaction was to be a contract that could be released cleanly once the other pieces were in place.
New Orleans cleared the path. Then they moved through it.
The trade was announced Tuesday, according to Yahoo Sports, with sources confirming the move was structured specifically to get the Pelicans under the first apron in time to formally sign Mathurin. It is the kind of choreography that requires a front office willing to sacrifice a known commodity for a financial mechanism. New Orleans executed without hesitation.
The question that remains unanswered is whether any of it adds up to a coherent team rather than just a reshuffled roster. Several franchises have remade their rosters this offseason in ways that look decisive on paper before October tests the logic. The Pelicans have a talented young wing and more cap flexibility than they had a week ago. What they have not yet demonstrated is a clear identity for a franchise that has spent years being defined more by injuries and roster turnover than by any consistent style of play.
They made two moves in two days, and both pointed in the same direction. In New Orleans, that is not nothing. Whether it is enough is what the season will decide.
