The Memphis Grizzlies and New Orleans Pelicans completed a four-player trade on Tuesday, officially confirmed by both organizations. The deal sends two former first-round picks to new organizations, with each side betting that a fresh environment can unlock more than the player produced with his previous team.
Grizzlies Pelicans Trade Details
Here is the full trade: Memphis receives guard Jordan Hawkins, forward Micah Peavy, a future second-round pick and a future second-round pick swap. New Orleans receives guard AJ Johnson and veteran big man Taj Gibson.
Who is changing teams
Hawkins, the No. 14 pick in the 2023 draft, averaged 8.0 points and 2.3 rebounds across three seasons with New Orleans. He arrives in Memphis as the most established scorer in the deal, a lottery talent whose per-game numbers never fully caught up to his draft slot in three years with the Pelicans.
Peavy, a 2025 second-round pick at No. 40, averaged 4.3 points and 1.9 rebounds as a rookie. He heads to Memphis as a low-cost, developmental forward still early in his career.
Johnson, the No. 23 pick in the 2024 draft, arrived in Memphis via the six-team trade that also sent Khris Middleton around the league, but he never played a game for the Grizzlies. He now gets a chance to make his NBA debut in a Pelicans uniform.
Gibson, 41, appeared in 10 games for Memphis this past season and is now set to join his ninth NBA franchise. His next stop, at an age when most players have long since retired, is New Orleans.
The Pelicans welcomed their new guard on social media, posting: “Welcome to New Orleans, AJ Johnson!”
What it means: roster fit and rotation impact
For both front offices, this reads less like a blockbuster and more like a change-of-scenery trade aimed at unlocking value that had stalled out. Hawkins was a top-15 pick just three years ago, and a new backcourt situation in Memphis gives him a cleaner runway to reestablish himself after three seasons of modest scoring numbers in New Orleans. The same logic applies to Johnson: a former first-round value pick who could never crack Memphis’s rotation after landing there in a multi-team blockbuster now gets an actual opportunity to play, rather than a roster spot he never used.
The trade also reshapes each team’s depth chart in ways that go beyond the two headline names. Peavy gives Memphis a low-cost, two-way forward still on his rookie contract, the kind of buy-low asset a team can develop without roster risk. The two future second-round assets heading to Memphis add draft-capital flexibility, giving the Grizzlies extra optionality for either player development or future trade currency.
Gibson’s arrival looks like a locker-room move as much as a basketball one. Bringing in a 41-year-old entering his ninth franchise signals that New Orleans values professionalism and practice habits alongside its younger additions, even if his on-court role is limited to spot minutes behind the team’s regular frontcourt rotation.
What changes now
Both rosters look different heading into training camp. Memphis adds a proven, if inconsistent, scoring guard in Hawkins and a young developmental forward in Peavy, while banking extra draft capital for later use. New Orleans adds a former first-round prospect in Johnson who is still searching for his first NBA minutes, plus a well-traveled veteran in Gibson who brings experience to a locker room absorbing new faces. Both front offices will spend the rest of the offseason finalizing the back of their rosters around these new pieces.