NBA trade grades: Do the Pelicans need Jordan Poole? How can CJ McCollum help the Wizards?

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Even though there doesn’t appear to be a ton of salary-cap space among teams and top-flight free agents this summer, there has still been a ton of player movement ahead of the draft. We’ve already had Desmond Bane sent to the Orlando Magic, Kevin Durant on his way to the Houston Rockets and Jrue Holiday going to the Portland Trail Blazers. We can now add the New Orleans Pelicans and the Washington Wizards to the trade shenanigans.

Our Josh Robbins confirmed that the Wizards have agreed to move Jordan Poole, Saddiq Bey and this year’s 40th pick in the draft to the New Orleans Pelicans in exchange for CJ McCollum, Kelly Olynyk and a future second-round pick.

The Washington Wizards have agreed to trade Jordan Poole, Saddiq Bey and the 40th pick in this year’s draft to the New Orleans Pelicans for CJ McCollum, Kelly Olynyk and a future second-round pick, a team source confirmed to @TheAthleticNBA. @ShamsCharania first

— Josh Robbins (@JoshuaBRobbins) June 24, 2025

ESPN first reported the deal.

This is another trade from the past week that doesn’t appear to be obvious on the surface, but we can dig into this swapping of scoring guards with some red ink and grades:

Wizards acquire McCollum, Olynyk and a future second-round pick

There appear to be two ways to break down this trade for the Wizards.

First, there’s a ton of cap flexibility in the immediate future. By moving Poole for McCollum, the Wizards just shaved a year off committed salary from their books. Poole has two years left on his deal, and McCollum will enter the 2025-26 season on an expiring deal. As of right now, the biggest long-term commitment the Wizards have on their books past this coming season is the $13.9 million owed to Corey Kispert in 2026-27 and the $13 million he’s due in 2027-28.

Almost everybody else on the current roster has either an expiring contract for the summer of 2026 or is under a rookie contract. Thanks to this deal, the Wizards have gone from having one of the worst contract situations in the league, hindered by Bradley Beal’s no-trade clause, to clearing roughly $100 million in cap space for the summer of 2026. That’s assuming they don’t add any long-term money right now. They’ll also have expiring deals with McCollum, Marcus Smart, Olynyk and Khris Middleton they can potentially move at the trade deadline to acquire more assets, which will be key.

Cap space in today’s NBA is typically more about acquiring bad contracts with draft assets attached to them, rather than just outright signing All-Star-caliber or big-time players. The Wizards are growing a very good, promising core with Alex Sarr (20 years old), Bilal Coulibaly (20), Bub Carrington (19) and Kyshawn George (21) already on the roster. They also have the sixth and 18th picks in this week’s draft, so they could add some pretty significant talent. The Wizards’ rebuild is inching toward truly taking advantage of the teams in need of jettisoning bad contracts to avoid the NBA’s dreaded financial aprons, and that could mean attaching first-round picks to do so.

Second, there’s a potential mentorship aspect. McCollum has been viewed as one of the better veteran voices in the league for quite some time. Even when he first entered the NBA, he was considered a mature player. He’s in a leadership position with the National Basketball Players Association, and adding him should help provide even more leadership as Middleton and Smart help show a young core the ropes.

The Wizards know they’re going to be a bad on-court product with a low ceiling for wins. But their youth can make them fun, and they are finally in a position to rebuild with flexibility the way good organizations typically do. Assuming the Wizards use the cap space properly, clearing the books seemed like a no-brainer here.

Grade: A-

Pelicans acquire Poole, Bey and No. 40 pick in 2025 draft

This is the part of the trade I’m a little murky on. Poole’s reputation has been all over the place. He’s been a fun, fairly important role player for the Golden State Warriors’ 2022 title run, been the guy Draymond Green punched as the Bay Area vibes dimmed, became the poster child for NBA apathy in his first season in Washington and then had a quietly solid season in 2024-25. The talent to score the ball and shoot from the outside is there, and maybe being in a more structured, competitive environment is what he needs to truly maximize his skill set and effort.

I’m just not sure swapping him out for McCollum is the upgrade the Pelicans think it is. Poole is more expensive with the extra year of salary committed, and he’s a very streaky player. Even in his best season in Golden State, his stretches ranged from wildly productive to outright cold. The Pelicans do need guys who can stay on the court, and Poole has mostly done that in his career. He missed 14 games last season, but a few of those came at the end, when the Wizards didn’t have a reason to play him. Other than that, he missed only eight combined games in the previous three seasons.

At some point next season, they could pair Poole with Dejounte Murray in the backcourt when the latter returns from his Achilles injury. The Pelicans can also have Poole helping stretch the floor for Zion Williamson when he’s available. He can pair decently with Trey Murphy III. And maybe a big part of this was the Pelicans believing they can get a contributor with the 40th pick in a very promising draft that should still have available rotation guys deep into Thursday’s second round.

Assuming Williamson is still in the Pelicans’ plans moving forward, this is an expensive team. I don’t know if it has the wiggle room to really add pieces to a core of Williamson, Poole, Murphy and Murray, although nailing the seventh pick in this draft would go a long way toward capitalizing on a bad season. There’s a lot to be figured out, but at first glance, this is a cap-planning move and basketball head-scratcher.

Grade: C+

(Photo: Scott Wachter / Imagn Images)

This news was originally published on this post .

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