NBA free agency: Tyreke Evans reportedly will be traded to Pelicans for Greivis Vasquez, Robin Lopez

A blockbuster NBA sign-and-trade is in the works, as the Sacramento Kings are primed to deal Tyreke Evans to the New Orleans Pelicans in exchange for point guard Greivis Vasquez and big man Robin Lopez, according to Ailene Voisin of the Sacramento Bee. Evans had verbally agreed on Wednesday to sign a four-year, $44 million offer sheet from the Pelicans when the July moratorium was lifted on July 10. The Kings reportedly do not intend to match such an offer, and Evans may not have want them to do so anyways. A trade will allow Sacramento to pick up some young assets instead of losing Evans without compensation through the restricted free agency process.

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The Pelicans traded for all-star point guard Jrue Holiday on draft night, so the potential addition of Evans crowds the backcourt a bit, given that Eric Gordon is already on the roster. Gordon's relationship with New Orleans turned sour last year, but Evans is an old AAU buddy and now Gordon says he's "all in with the Pelicans."

Rohan Cruyff of SB Nation's Pelicans blog is excited about the new possibilities :

I like the idea of Evans coming off the bench. Early reports indicated that Dell Demps and his team laid out a vision of Tyreke in a Ginobili role to the Evans camp at their meeting on July 1. While many scoffed at the idea that Evans would accept a bench role at all, if the initial reports were accurate, that indeed appears to be the case.
An Evans-Ryan Anderson (that'll be a fun pick and pop) bench would almost automatically be excellent, with Williams able to play a late game line-up of Jrue Holiday-Eric Gordon-Evans-Anderson-Anthony Davis.
In this scenario, New Orleans would still need to pick up a starting SF (possibly re-upping Aminu) and center, although the possibility of starting Anderson and moving Davis to the 5 remains in play as well.
The larger point is that positions are *this* close to being out the window entirely on this team.

On the flip side, Cruyff notes that New Orleans is primed to lose two players who started a combined 160 games for the team last season. That price feels a bit high if the Kings truly did not intend to match the offer sheet, but by securing a trade New Orleans is able to eliminate any risk of losing Evans with a last-minute change of heart in Sacramento. In essence, the Pelicans are buying out the Kings' right to match the offer sheet that Evans would have otherwise signed on July 10.