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David Griffin is Betting on NBA History to Repeat Itself
The idea of first round picks are captivating, but the reality of what those picks become is often far less exciting. Every fan base with a first round pick studies mock drafts and prospect highlight videos for months before the draft, and then continues to study them weeks after, hoping against hope that their new […]
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The Top Free Agent Target for the Pelicans Should Be Obvious
Last offseason, everything was on the table. David Griffin was essentially building a roster from scratch, knowing he had to trade his cornerstone Anthony Davis while simultaneously building around his new franchise player Zion Williamson. This offseason is a little different, as Griffin knows what he has in guys like Brandon Ingram and Josh Hart, […]
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An Outside the Box Approach to the Offseason for David Griffin and the Pelicans
Go young. Get Vets. Trade Jrue. Move Lonzo. Get more picks. Trade away picks. You ask 5 people and you will get 5 totally different philosophies and ideas on how David Griffin should approach this offseason for the Pelicans. Well, here is a 6th….one you haven’t heard yet — Attack free agency aggressively. But how, […]
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This Offseason will Show Us Exactly Who David Griffin is
In the next few months, we will finally get to see who David Griffin is as the lead decision maker of an NBA franchise. While he has been a General Manager for 4 years in Cleveland and an Executive VP of Basketball Ops in New Orleans this past year, he has never really had his […]
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How the NBA Returns: A Proposal to Save the Season
Predicting the future has never been harder. Make no mistake, it has never been easy, but it has been possible because the future often resembles the past. Most people still fail to predict it, however, because they look at the wrong indicators and/or examples from the past. People also inject their own bias into the […]
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The Pelicans Playoff Window Might Be Closed Very Soon
Pelicans, Grizzlies, Kings, and Spurs fans all go through the same process every morning. First, they take a glance at the standings. Then, they do a little arithmetic to calculate how many games their teams have left before going to their teams schedule page. After that, they head over to the schedule page of the […]
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10 Pelicans Things I Think I Think at the All Star Break
They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. More specifically, Quentin Tarantino says, “Steal, steal, steal.” So with that in mind, I see no better person to blatantly steal from than the best NBA writer in the game today – Zach Lowe, whose ’10 Things’ column is one of the most enjoyable, thought […]
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Trade Deadline: Buyers? Sellers? Why Not Both?
With so many podcasts available these days, how is a Pelicans fan supposed to know who to believe? In the span of five days, you could download the Brian Windhorst podcast and hear him speculate about the Pelicans becoming buyers at this trade deadline or tune into the Lowe Post and hear its host imply […]
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Trade Season is Coming and the Pelicans Need to Be Aggressive
After an offseason full of collecting assets and quality players, inspiring press conferences, an exciting summer league, and a perfect preseason, David Griffin had a 100% approval rating. Even national media members were drooling over the prospects of the Pelicans future, and Pelicans fans were flying high. Cut to less than 8 weeks later, and […]
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Early Season Eye Test Part Two — The Bigs
As we continue to forgo the urge to look at the stats, and instead focus on what our eyes are telling us, I turn my attention to the bigs. Unfortunately, we have yet to see a regular season minute from the most important big man, but we have had opportunities to see a decent amount […]
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An Eye Test Evaluation After a Handful of Games – Part 1
Stats are all the rage these days, but this old man uses his eyes first, second, and third before even bothering to check out basketball reference. It is not that I do not see value in stats; Quite the contrary actually. I just don’t think stats have evolved enough yet to tell us a story. […]
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Pelicans Secured Aaron Nelson, Now They Have to Use Him
Every franchise in the NBA has strengths. Some have more than others, but there are advantages that each franchise has that they need to leverage for maximum impact. Texas teams have no state income tax, Miami has South Beach, Milwaukee has solitude, and LA has the allure of Hollywood. New Orleans now has a massive […]
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Don’t Close the Door on Nikola Mirotic Just Yet
It’s easy to assume that the Pelicans have closed the door on the Western Conference playoffs, contending for a title in the upcoming years, and yes, Nikola Mirotic. After just under one calendar year with the Pelicans, Mirotic was traded to the Milwaukee Bucks on Thursday for Jason Smith, Stanley Johnson, and four 2nd round […]
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Anthony Davis, The Celtics, The Knicks, and Leverage
It is February 1st, the NBA trade deadline is less than a week away, and the games are just beginning. The Pelicans are taking and making plenty of phone calls, which normally signals urgency, but in this case, there is no rush. For some, like the Lakers, February 7th is the finish line, but for […]
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The Writing is on the Wall; It’s Time for the Pelicans to Sell
Two Games under .500 with a brutal 12 game stretch facing a Pelicans team that was finally completely healthy. That was the situation the Pelicans were in after beating the Cavs for a second time in a week on January 9th. Though the upcoming schedule was tough, the prevailing wisdom that this Pelicans team could […]
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Trades, Trades, Trades
Yes, it’s that time again. The NBA’s trade deadline is just three weeks away, and the worst kept secret in the NBA is that Dell Demps is working the phones in an effort to improve the team and keep Anthony Davis long term. As usual, the Pelicans first round pick is on the table and […]
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Gentry Needs To Find Out Now If The Three Bigs Can Play Together
When Julius Randle unexpectedly became a free agent on July 2nd, the Pelicans put in a call to his agent half expecting to get blown off. They had no cap room left, and only had the mid-level exception to offer to the 23 year-old unrestricted free agent. Even in a slightly depressed market, guys like […]
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Ian Clark Looks to Build on Great Finish to Season
July 2nd was certainly the climax of the New Orleans Pelicans 2018 offseason. Rondo and Boogie went to the West Coast, Julius Randle chose to team up with AD and Elfrid Payton came home. A day that we will look back on years from now, as one that forever changed the direction of this franchise. […]
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Let’s Be Real About Rondo
Some have characterized Rondo going to the Lakers as a “big loss” for the Pelicans. They cite his stats, his relationship with AD, and his intangibles as things that the Pelicans will find it hard to replace. He allowed Jrue to play off the ball, they will say. He was a great guard for the […]
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All Dell Demps Deserves is the Chance to Succeed . . . Or Fail
Dell Demps is entering his 9th season as General Manager of the New Orleans Pelicans, and what a journey it has been. When he first arrived in 2010, a new coach was just hired without his input and the term “ownership turmoil” would be a vast understatement. As if that wasn’t enough, rumors were swirling […]