Instant Reaction: What Do The Pelicans Do This Off-Season?

[Ell Curry]

I could see Ingram and #21 for Nick Richards, Micic and the Hornets pick (3rd in lotto odds).

Pels take a step back, save some money and sets up a trade down the line of their picks + McCollum when that gets closer to expiring. Say they draft Reed Sheppard at #3 and then hopefully grab Filipowski with their own pick at #17 to get a stretchier 5, or whoever they think can be a starting center in a couple years if they believe in Missi, Ware or Edey.

Richards-Nance-Filipowski
Zion-Herb
Murphy-Herb
Sheppard-McCollum
Micic-Daniels

A traditional PG while Sheppard and Daniels develop, and you're closing with only one of them anyways with Herb and Murphy at the 2 and 3 spots.

Hornets turn their nose up at a bad draft, extend Ingram and hope Lamelo-Miller-Ingram-GrantWilliams-MarkWilliams with Miles Bridges as 6th man covering the 2-4 minutes, still enough space for the MLE to fill either the backup 1 or 5 spot and whichever you don't get for the MLE you can probably get via trade (like the Nets Schroder deal for example) makes a playoff team and the oldest guy in the rotation are the 26 year olds (Grant Williams, Ingram) so the window is pretty long. Probably draft a center or PG at #22 since those types of guys don't tend to fill holes for too long.

[jayjaysee]

In the Star for star base..

Lauri, Moody, Looney to NOP
Ingram to Golden State
Payton, Daniels, Kuminga, 2024 NOP first, 2025 GSW first first to Utah

TJD/Dray/Wiggins/Santos/Ingram/Podz/Curry with about 32 million for the rest of roster, believe they’d be hard capped at first apron? Meh

I was toying around with something similar earlier:

GSW in: Brandon Ingram, Maxi Kleber
GSW out: Andrew Wiggins, Gary Payton II, Jonathan Kuminga, 2025 1st round pick

NOP in: Lauri Markkanen, Tim Hardaway Jr.
NOP out: Brandon Ingram, 2025 1st, 2027 1st

DAL in: Andrew Wiggins
DAL out: Tim Hardaway Jr., Maxi Kleber

UTA in: Gary Payton II, Jonathan Kuminga, GSW 2025 1st, NOP 2025 1st, NOP 2027 1st
UTA out: Lauri Markkanen

Using Wiggins allows keeping more depth, since Klay should be kept cheaper than Wiggins.. But I think I take Wiggins over Klay and another 8 million dollar player? 32 million for 7 players leaves enough room to build a not terrible bench..

But that’s the Dallas/Wiggins idea we’ve been pushing for a year, so I’m happy if yall are happy..

[NYG]

What is New Orleans' biggest need?

[lordjeff05]

What is New Orleans' biggest need?

You have two camps. Some say point guard who can organize the offense, set the pace and get Zion easy looks.

Others say big man that can defend and adequately space the floor.

I’m in the latter camp for two reasons. First off Zion likes bringing the ball up and orchestrating the offense and he’s good at it. He can’t do it for 33 minutes a game for 82 games but he can do it enough so that you want more connectors rather than ball dominant pgs.

Secondly regardless of whether or not we trade BI, we don’t shoot enough 3s and the defenses that work best against Zion are able to show help with length. A true shooter from the 5 is the best way to counteract a super aggressive wall style defense.

[Smooth32]

Cavs and Pelicans matchup has trade partners for a lot of reasons, but namely, the Pelicans have the type of wings the Cavs.

On one end, you have Mitchell or Garland being moved for a larger package involving Ingram and other pieces.

On the other end, you have Allen bringing back a better fitting wing next to the core like Murphy or Jones.

Could see either happening But see the Allen scenarios being more likely at this point in time. Allen for a Pelican wing makes a lot of sense for both sides and dealing from their surplus to address another need while being able to match age, cost, and potential within a deal.

[YayBasketball]

Cavs and Pelicans matchup has trade partners for a lot of reasons, but namely, the Pelicans have the type of wings the Cavs.

On one end, you have Mitchell or Garland being moved for a larger package involving Ingram and other pieces.

On the other end, you have Allen bringing back a better fitting wing next to the core like Murphy or Jones.

Could see either happening But see the Allen scenarios being more likely at this point in time. Allen for a Pelican wing makes a lot of sense for both sides and dealing from their surplus to address another need while being able to match age, cost, and potential within a deal.

Makes sense in theory, but the general belief is that Pels will keep and build around Herb and Murphy as the starting wings alongside Zion. Instead, Ingram and maybe Daniels are the available wings.

Objectively, moving Herb makes sense with his less than stellar shooting from a perimeter player alongside Zion (great 3pt% this year, but teams don't respect his shooting like that, especially in playoffs). But his intangibles as lowly drafted grinder from the Gulf Coast region makes him a likely keeper for David Griffin.