Indiana Pacers: Constructing a deal to acquire a star point guard for Malcolm Brogdon

Why the New Orleans Pelicans will make this deal

For the Pelicans, Brogdon presents them with a more surefire option to accelerate their rebuild and become more competitive in the stacked West. Despite their loaded talent on the youth front, New Orleans is still tethered to mediocrity in the conference, failing to crack even the play-in tournament this season.

If there’s one thing that Malcolm will instantly provide for the Crescent City, it will be discipline. While the Pelicans have two young superstars in Zion Williamson and Brandon Ingram, New Orleans has been wildly inconsistent. The team numbers are already there, with the team ranking in the upper half on offense and assists and near-tops in rebounding.

Talent rarely shines without great complements. Malcolm Brogdon is arguably better than Lonzo Ball in the present, and adding him will surely boost NOLA’s ceiling to immediately make noise out West. While he is a 20-point scorer, his greatest contribution will come on defense, where the Pelicans are a paltry 22nd and limiting turnovers, where they rank 18th.

It also helps that Brogdon already has chemistry with Eric Bledsoe, who has not accrued trade interest from the league, from their Milwaukee days. This will give the Pelicans a wonderful defensive pairing in the backcourt that has already worked its magic with the Bucks, who led the league in defensive rating in their stint together in 2018-19.