NBA Trade Deadline: Pelicans’ Ryan Anderson is staying put
By Tom West
Despite being one of the most sought after players at the NBA trade deadline, Ryan Anderson is staying put with the New Orleans Pelicans.
Markieff Morris is finally out of Phoenix as he heads towards Washington in exchange for DeJuan Blair, Kris Humphries and a first-round draft pick. This has given us the biggest deal of the 2016 NBA trade deadline day, which says a lot about the low magnitude of what’s occurred. To continue this trend, one of the most sought after players, Ryan Anderson of the New Orleans Pelicans, will be staying put after all.
ESPN’s Marc Stein has reported that he won’t be going anywhere, and will now give the Pelicans something to worry about when he becomes a free agent this summer. Yet again, he’ll be in very high demand.
Less than 10 minutes to go before the trade deadline and the much, much pursued Ryan Anderson is staying put in New Orleans
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) February 18, 2016
When it comes to trades that ended up being nothing more than speculation, this is one of the most surprising. Multiple teams have been interested in Anderson for weeks now, as they know just what he’ll have earned as a free agent when the salary cap rises this year. This could easily put him out the Pelicans’ price range for the role they want him to play, which is the primary reason as to why he’s appeared so frequently in trade rumors.
Yet, as the deadline is now passed, they’ll be hoping to re-sign him. As one of the premier stretch fours in the NBA, Anderson was burying shots all over the floor with 16.7 points per game and a 38.3 percent stroke from three-point range this season. He’s the ideal catch-and-shoot threat for any frontcourt rotation, which leaves most fans and analysts alike surprised by the fact that he’s staying put in New Orleans.
The Pelicans won’t have a ton of cap space free for him in free agency, but he’ll be sticking out the rest of the season with them nevertheless. It’s just up to them to make a contract work now, otherwise they’ll have missed a chance to trade him and bring in a valuable return.