The New Orleans Pelicans went against the grain at the All-Star break last year by acquiring superstar center DeMarcus Cousins to give their team the most dominant frontcourt in the league. Both Cousins and fellow superstar big man Anthony Davis have enjoyed spectacular 2017-18 NBA seasons up to this point.
However, the Pelicans still find themselves hovering around the bottom of the Western Conference playoff picture. As a result, there has been some speculation as to whether New Orleans will still try to make it work moving forward. Among those that are not convinced is NBA Hall of Famer Tracy McGrady, who gave his piece on whether the Pelicans should keep their two bigs during a guest appearance on ESPN's The Jump:
“No. Absolutely not. Because I think with this roster, how are you going to go out and improve? If you sign Boogie to a max contract, you already have AD on his max contract. You have Jrue Holiday making $26 million a year. You can’t improve this roster.”
McGrady took it a step further by saying he would keep Cousins in an attempt to acquire more assets in a trade for Davis.
“If I could get a commitment from Boogie, I would look to trade AD because I feel I could get valuable assets to improve my roster. And I already have a legitimate big man that is just as dominant as AD. I’m afraid that if I trade Boogie, I won’t get that same value back for him.”
While McGrady's proposal may seem a bit far-fetched, it would certainly make plenty of sense for the Pelicans. Despite his stellar performance this year, the prospect of trading for a player like Cousins is much less appealing than his younger counterpart.
Meanwhile, Davis is regarded as the best young big man in the game. However, he has already been labeled as injury-prone after missing his fair share of games so early in his career.
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