People have mentioned it a lot in sports talk shows today and I found it interesting. In many star player trades, the goal is usually to send the player to a team that's away from your division/conference. So the Pelicans might want to try send AD to the East (the other conference). That could give us a bit of an edge over Western teams who are interested in him simply because UNLESS a team like LAL offers a MONSTER package, then if the trade offers are fairly close in value then the Pelicans may decide to send him East.
In the NFL, Bill Belichick did this with Garoppolo when he sent Jimmy G. to the other conference (NFC) & many thought the return was underwhelming. Even with Kawhi, Pop sent him to the Raptors for a return some thought wasn't as great as what other teams could have offered/did offer, but this move meant Pop and the Spurs didn't face Kawhi in many big games (like the playoffs).
So with that said, it gives teams like the Knicks, Bulls (his hometown team), Celtics and probably even a team like the Sixers (if they enter the bidding war) an edge over teams in the West like the Clippers, Lakers, etc.
Of course though, in our instance the rental status of AD is still an obstacle to look at as well as what Kyrie decides in FA.