Jose Alvarado certainly struck gold this past trade deadline. From playing for the moribund New Orleans Pelicans, Alvarado saw himself get traded to a contending New York Knicks team that has now not just made it to the NBA Finals, but is now also three wins away from winning a title after earning a 105-95 victory over the San Antonio Spurs in Game 1 on Wednesday night.
It's not as if Alvarado's just an end of the bench player who gets in during garbage time. He played 11 minutes in Game 1 and scored seven, making three of his six shots from the field, including one three-pointer. The Knicks certainly look at Alvarado as a potential spark plug to turn games around.
And one of Alvarado's former teammates on the Pelicans in Naji Marshall, who's now with the Dallas Mavericks and didn't have to travel far for Game 1 in San Antonio, was in attendance at Frost Bank Center to show him some love.
Jose Alvarado’s former Pelicans teammate Naji Marshall came to support (and be the family photographer) 🥲📸
Alvarado and the Knicks take a 1-0 series lead in the NBA Finals! pic.twitter.com/t32cNCcwv8
— NBA (@NBA) June 4, 2026
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Knicks fans would recall that Marshall was also a trade target for the team, but the price tag the Mavericks set for him was way too expensive for New York's taste. But Marshall appears to be in very high spirits anyway as he supports his former teammate wholeheartedly, even becoming the Alvarado family photographer in the process.
Pelicans fans will recall Marshall and Alvarado's time together on the team very fondly. They played fast and with so much joy, and they changed the momentum plenty of times in New Orleans' favor.
But it's a common trend nowadays for players who escape the Pelicans franchise to come even further into their own in their next chapter, as evidenced by Marshall's emergence for the Mavs and, most notably, Dyson Daniels' breakout for the Atlanta Hawks (Daniels has since become an enemy of the Knicks fanbase).
Jose Alvarado certainly struck gold this past trade deadline. From playing for the moribund New Orleans Pelicans, Alvarado saw himself get traded to a contending New York Knicks team that has now not just made it to the NBA Finals, but is now also three wins away from winning a title after earning a 105-95 victory over the San Antonio Spurs in Game 1 on Wednesday night.