NBA Trade Deadline: Heat trade Jarnell Stokes to Pelicans

The Miami Heat are kicking off NBA trade deadline day by trading Jarnell Stokes to the New Orleans Pelicans.

Well, if you wanted a blockbuster NBA trade deadline deal, this is the exact opposite. A backup big man who has played a mere 144 minutes through his career and only 14 this season isn’t worth getting excited about. Nevertheless, a trade has taken place and the Heat and Pelicans have kicked things off.

According to Shams Charania of Yahoo! Sports, the Heat are sending Jarnell Stokes to the Pelicans.

Again, sorry to disappoint as this move hasn’t exactly shaken up the NBA as some fans would hope. It was purely a financial move in order for the Heat to dump a minor amount — $2.1 million in luxury tax, to be exact.

In New Orleans, it’s hard to see Stokes creating a role for himself. They already have Anthony Davis, Omer Asik, and Ryan Anderson (for now), so an unproven big man like Stokes hardly gives them anything. There’s a reason he’s only played in 26 games since entering the NBA in 2014, and he’s frequently been back and forth from the D-League (primarily with the Iowa Energy and Sioux Falls Skyforce).

For the Heat, this trade was purely to give themselves a little more financial flexibility. Whether or not they plan to make a bigger trade before the 3:00 PM ET deadline is unclear, although they have the potential to do so. Until now, they’ve purely done moves for salary reasons, as them trading Chris Andersen shows.

However, as the Heat appear to be considering the idea of trading Hassan Whiteside before he becomes a free agent this summer, they could pull off one of the biggest trades on deadline day. Who knows if this will happen, but someone landing their new franchise center would easily be one of the top stories on the day.

For now, we’ll just have to wait and see if anything more interesting happens.