{"id":831000,"date":"2026-09-08T21:45:22","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T21:45:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/831000\/"},"modified":"2026-09-08T21:45:22","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T21:45:22","slug":"uconns-jordan-hawkins-traded-to-memphis-grizzlies-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/831000\/","title":{"rendered":"UConn’s Jordan Hawkins traded to Memphis Grizzlies"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former UConn men’s basketball<\/a> star Jordan Hawkins is crossing Southwest Division rivalry lines, joining the Memphis Grizzlies in a four-player trade after three seasons with the New Orleans Pelicans.\u00a0<\/p>\n

New Orleans drafted Hawkins No. 14 overall after he helped guide UConn to a 2023 NCAA Tournament championship, but the 6-foot-5 guard faced a significantly reduced role with the Pelicans last season before his move. The Pelicans also dealt Micah Peavy, a future second-round draft pick and a future second-round pick swap to the Grizzlies in exchange for AJ Johnson and Taj Gibson.<\/p>\n

Hawkins will link up with Cam Spencer, another former UConn standout, in Memphis. The two guards never overlapped in Storrs, with Spencer arriving before the 2024 season as a transfer from Rutgers \u2014 Spencer led the nation in offensive rating during his lone season under Dan Hurley<\/a> and has been an unlikely NBA contributor with the Grizzlies.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A star at famed basketball powerhouse DeMatha Catholic, Hawkins was named Maryland Gatorade Player of the Year and blossomed into a four-star recruit, choosing UConn over interest from Louisville and a bevy of Big East peers. Hawkins served a limited bench role as a freshman during the 2021-22 season, but he burst to life as a sophomore after navigating an early injury, averaging 16.2 points per game on 39% shooting from deep, helping Hurley win his first national title.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hawkins appeared to carve out a significant role on a rebuilding Pelicans team by his second NBA season, averaging 10.8 points points in around 23.6 minutes per game\u00a0off the bench. However, his offensive production and playing time were both cut in half during the 2025-26 season, and he did not feature in 21 games after New Year’s Day.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The 24-year-old is currently in the final year of his four-year rookie contract, worth around $21 million. Hawkins cannot be traded again with other players until Nov. 6 and will become an unrestricted free agent ahead of the 2027-28 season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former UConn men’s basketball star Jordan Hawkins is crossing Southwest Division rivalry lines, joining the Memphis Grizzlies in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":830959,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3796],"tags":[87115,7,87116,6,478,470,4073,4072,675],"class_list":["post-831000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-orleans-pelicans","tag-all-daily-sites","tag-basketball","tag-ct-insider","tag-nba","tag-new-orleans","tag-new-orleans-pelicans","tag-neworleans","tag-neworleanspelicans","tag-pelicans"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/117237614093866944","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/831000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=831000"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/831000\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/830959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=831000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=831000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=831000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}