New Orleans Paid a First for Eleven Bayless Games
New Orleans acquired Jerryd Bayless from Portland on October 23, 2010 for a protected 2011 first-round pick. The player window was remarkably short. The Pelicans’ own media guide credits Bayless with only 11 games and 149 minutes for the Hornets, averaging 4.5 points before the franchise moved him again on November 20. That makes the original acquisition difficult to defend in isolation: a future first-round asset was committed for a guard who never became a stable part of the rotation.
Bayless Still Became Part of the Jarrett Jack Package
The Hornets did not simply lose Bayless for nothing. Less than a month later they sent him with Peja Stojakovic to Toronto for Jarrett Jack, David Andersen and Marcus Banks. Jack became a useful New Orleans guard, so some value from Bayless was recycled into a second transaction. The limitation is attribution: Stojakovic and his contract were also part of that deal, making it impossible to credit the entire Toronto return to Bayless. The short New Orleans tenure therefore remains the most direct measure of this trade.
Portland Converted the Pick Into Gerald Wallace Help
The protected first conveyed in 2011 and ultimately became the No. 19 selection associated with Tobias Harris. Portland did not draft and develop Harris itself. Instead, Basketball-Reference records the Blazers sending that first, another future first and a veteran package to Charlotte for Gerald Wallace in February 2011. The Hornets asset therefore became part of a larger deal for an established starting forward. That downstream use is more accurate than pretending Portland directly enjoyed Harris’s later NBA career.
The Outcome Gap Is Real Even Without the Harris Shortcut
Portland extracted a premium trade chip from a player it was ready to move, then spent that chip in the Wallace acquisition. New Orleans got 11 games from Bayless before folding him into another package. Jarrett Jack’s later usefulness gives the Hornets some indirect recovery, but it does not erase the cost of the original transaction. The canonical A+ for Portland and F for New Orleans are severe grades, yet the basic verdict survives a careful asset-chain review because the Blazers turned Bayless into first-round leverage while the Hornets received almost no direct tenure.
Final Verdict
Blazers Win — New Orleans F, Portland A+. Jerryd Bayless played only 11 games for New Orleans before being traded again, so the Hornets received almost no direct return on a protected first-round pick. Bayless did help form the later package that brought Jarrett Jack, David Andersen and Marcus Banks from Toronto, which keeps the chain from being literally empty. Portland’s win is still clear: the first conveyed and became the No. 19 asset, and the Blazers used that pick inside the Gerald Wallace trade. The value came through trade leverage rather than a Tobias Harris career in Portland, but it was far more durable than Bayless’s brief Hornets stay.