With the New Orleans Pelicans seemingly placing every one of their players on the table in wake of the Anthony Davis trade request, they have now traded forward Nikola Mirotic to the Milwaukee Bucks in exchange for Jason Smith and the recently acquired Stanley Johnson.
The deal also includes the Detroit Pistons, who will help facilitate multiple second-round picks to the Pelicans. In total, New Orleans will net four future second-round picks out of this deal.
This report comes from Adrian Wojnarowski and Zach Lowe of ESPN and Marc Stein of the NY Times.
Bucks will send Jason Smith and Stanley Johnson to Pelicans for Mirotic, per source. https://t.co/D28YlR6zQ5
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) February 7, 2019
Hearing that the Mirotic trade will net New Orleans four second-round picks
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) February 7, 2019
The Pelicans had recently made public their decision to put players such as Julius Randle, E’Twaun Moore, and Mirotic on the table for potential trade offers and Mirotic is the first domino to fall.
Mirotic was traded to the Pelicans a little over a year ago from the Chicago Bulls following a falling out within the organization. His addition to the roster was supposed to keep the Pelicans competitive after they lost DeMarcus Cousins to a season-ending Achilles tear. During his tenure with New Orleans, Mirotic played in 66 games and averaged 15.7 points and 8.2 rebounds per game.
Stanley Johnson was recently traded from Detroit to Milwaukee as a part of the deal that sent Thon Maker from Milwaukee to Detroit.
