Pelicans Trade Salmons to Suns, Get Norris Cole from Heat
By Mike Delayo
According to Marc Stein of ESPN, the Pelicans have dealt reserve forward John Salmons to the Phoenix Suns (where he will be probably be waived), while the Miami Heat send point guard Norris Cole, former LSU center Justin Hamilton and forward Shawne Williams (who both will be waived) to New Orleans as part of a three team deal.
Later, the Suns included reserve guard Ish Smith as part of the deal. Only Cole and Smith will remain in New Orleans.
Originally, the trade emerged as simply a Salmons for Cole swap:
Norris Cole to New Orleans for John Salmons is another trade that beat the buzzer
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) February 19, 2015
Salmons signed with New Orleans in August, but has not played much in a Pelicans uniform. He only played 21 games and did not average more than 12 minutes in those games. He is at the tail end of a solid 12 year career. Hopefully, he can enjoy his time in Miami.
Jan 16, 2015; Philadelphia, PA, USA; New Orleans Pelicans forward John Salmons (15) warms up prior to a game against the Philadelphia 76ers at Wells Fargo Center. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports
In lieu of Jrue Holiday’s latest setback, the Pelicans have acquired a capable reserve point guard in Norris Cole.
Cole is in the midst of his fourth season in the pros, all of which was spent with the Miami Heat.
He was a key bench contributor for three of the Lebron James led Heat teams that made it to the NBA Finals.
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Though Salmons had the most experience in the league among the Pelicans, Cole now brings perhaps the most legitimate playoff resume.
His offensive game is not where he shines. He is not a great shooter, excluding a couple hot nights once in a while.
He does not get to the free throw line often, just like the other Pels guards, and he fails to convert at a high rate when he does (73% for his career).
He does manage to take care of the ball reasonably well, sporting a respectable 3.0 assist to turnover ratio so far this year.
Cole makes up for his average offensive game with a pretty solid defensive one. Like his former teammate Mario Chalmers, Cole was a nuisance to opposing guards, sort of like how Jrue Holiday can be.
It may not always be pretty, but he works hard on this end of the floor, something that Monty Williams and Dell Demps have surely taken note of.
Heat Coach Erik Spoelstra said this of Cole in April of 2013, according to Couper Moorhead of Heat.com: “He is a student of everything. You can’t give Norris too much. He’s one of those guys, he’s so dedicated, so diligent.”
“That’s why you’re happy for a guy like that to have success because you know how much time he puts into it behind the scenes. One of the biggest reasons last year he didn’t have similar type of improvement is we simply did not have the practice time, the film time, shootarounds. And now you’re getting the result of a full season of that.”
Norris Cole, the key player in this transaction, will be the only one of these new players that will have a significant role for New Orleans in the near future.
With the Pelicans only a game and a half out of the 8th and final Playoff spot in the Western Conference, the hope is that Cole can make a difference in a playoff push in these last two months of the season.