Reasons for doing it:

Rockets- They need a player who can be a number 1 scorer in the Playoffs if they wanna try and make a run. BI is not a perfect player for that, but he is certainly better than what they have right now, and he brings playoff experience to a young team. They don't give up a huge package, so it's not a massive risk, and this would definitely put them higher on the tier list in a stacked West, at least in my opinion.

Pelicans- The Pelicans are absolutely atrocious, and they need to start blowing it up in my opinion. You cannot win with Zion, he is just too injury prone. This helps them lose more games to get a better chance at Cooper Flagg or Dylan Harper, who they actually could build around, and they get a young player with decent potential in Whitmore, and 2 unprotected picks, including one in this stacked draft.

Look out for part 2 of this where I trade more of the Pelicans players in a "blowing it up" series.