Veteran shooting guard JJ Redick, who was dealt at the NBA trade deadline from New Orleans to Dallas, is not happy over how Pelicans executive vice president of basketball operations David Griffin handled the move, saying he “did not honor his word.”
Speaking on his podcast, The Old Man & the Three, Redick explained his reasons for requesting a trade from New Orleans in November, according to ESPN’s Andrew Lopez. Among the most important reasons was his desire to be closer to his family in Brooklyn, while he also cited the team’s trade of Jrue Holiday as a factor for wanting out.
“Griff basically says to me, ‘Come down for a month. If you still want to be traded, I give you my word, I’ll get you to a situation that you like.’ We had four subsequent conversations,” Redick said. “Again, my agent talked to them. But I’m talking to Griff directly. Griff and I had a personal relationship. Obviously, he did not honor his word.”
Redick said he was under the impression that he would be bought out of his contract after not getting traded at the deadline, when he could then sign with the Nets. He said he will still join the Mavericks once he finishes rehabbing his injured knee, which he’s doing in New York away from the team.
When asked about the trade last week, Griffin said the front office tried to trade Redick to be closer to his family, but ultimately was unable to execute a move.
“We did spend a great deal of time trying to put JJ closer to home,” Griffin said Friday. “When it became clear that the teams that were in the best position regionally for him were not necessarily the most aggressive in landing him, we did have conversations about the importance of immediately contending, as he’s aging.
“I think we felt confident that JJ welcomed the better contending opportunity because we’re not even at the play-in at this point. We felt it was the right thing to do for him and his family.”
Redick said the experience has caused him to distrust Griffin and the Pelicans’ front office going forward.
“I don’t think you’re going to get honesty from that front office, just objectively speaking … It’s not something where I would expect certainly the agents that worked on this with me to ever trust that front office again.”
