JJ Redick sounds off on Pelicans front office, says they can’t be trusted
At last week’s trade deadline, the New Orleans Pelicans made a last-minute move to ship JJ Redick and Nicolo Melli to the Dallas Mavericks. The move came as a surprise as rumors persisted leading up to the deadline that Redick would be bought out by New Orleans.
Consider Redick himself among those caught off guard by the news of his trade. On Wednesday, Redick released the latest episode of his podcast, “The Old Man & the Three,” in which he detailed his season with the Pelicans and a behind-the-scenes look at the situation.
Redick revealed that he asked for a trade in September after the Jrue Holiday was dealt. Previously, Redick had revealed that Holiday being with the Pelicans was one of the reasons he came to New Orleans. Also, based on his familiarity with Stan Van Gundy and his defensive schemes, Redick noted that he knew that he would struggle to stay on the court defensively in Year 15 of his career.
Pelicans executive vice president of basketball operations David Griffin convinced Redick to come down to New Orleans to start the year and if things didn’t work out, he would move him. Obviously, Redick was not traded early in the season despite his demand and despite multiple conversations with Griffin.
“We’ve had subsequently four conversations. Again, my agent talks to him but I’m talking to Griff directly. That’s how I wanted to handle this. Griff and I had a personal relationship. And, obviously, he did not honor his word.”
Redick noted that once February came, his understanding was that he would not be traded and would be bought out after the trade deadline. He noted that he believed if he was to be traded, it would be to a location in the northeast near his family in Brooklyn, which was the genesis of his original trade deadline.
Ultimately, Redick was dealt to Dallas, a place geographically further away from Brooklyn than New Orleans. When asked on his podcast by co-host Tate Alter how a player could trust the Pelicans front office again, Redick fully sounded off.
“It’s a good quesiton. I don’t think you’re going to get honesty from that front office, objectively speaking. That’s not an opinon. I just don’t think you’re going to get that. I don’t think what happened with me is necessarily an isolated incident, either. But I do think across the league, front offices, they act in their best interest. I get that. I understand that.
I think, truthfully, and it’s hard for me to admit this, but I think I was a little naive in thinking that because I was in Year 15 and I had at least attempted to do things right throughout my career and I honored my end of the bargain – but in terms of this front office, it’s not something that I would expect certainly the agents that worked on this with me to ever trust that front office again.”
It’s a damning story on Griffin, who spoke to the media following the trade deadline and offered a bizarre explanation with regards to shopping Lonzo Ball in the weeks and months leading up to the deadline.
It should also be noted that, oftentimes, the truth lies somewhere in the middle of the two sides. An emotional Redick used his podcast platform to sound off and will likely have the louder word in this argument but it doesn’t fully mean he’s right.
