Solved: What We Need to Win The Championship This Year!

As I mentioned in my op, that may be true, but I would try. It seems he only has 2 years left on his deal, and the Pelicans are going to suck this year, and they have a young center in Jaxon Hayes that they signed to 4 years that they may to develop along with Zion. Why keep Okafor? If other teams are willing to offer more, I can see us being outbid if they need and want Okafor, but I don't see a good reason why the Pelicans will want to keep him for their rebuild. I can certainly be wrong about their thinking of course.

 

That does speed up the fast break and put pressure on the other team, wearing them down for the 4th quarter when Russ can squash them with his rentlessly.

 

I agree that it's a leap, but one that can be made based on the willingness on the other team. OKC is more likely to let go of Noel as I believe he is only on a 1 year deal and they are still somewhat in the tax if I'm not mistaken, so that could help get them out of the tax or lower their tax bill if they don't find another way to get out of it, for a player that is probably not in their longer term strategy.

Okafor is a tougher sale as I mentioned, but the Pelicans may or may not be looking to keep him long term with Zion, since they just signed another C to a 4 year deal. Maybe if we packaged a Hartenstein with a second or two it would make the deal happen, who knows. Maybe they are not interested or they could get a better deal. As I mentioned in the op, we could look for someone similar, which I haven't explored yet.

And as another poster said, in the summer we could get a starting center using Gordon's contract, although I'm not hoping to punt on this season without one. But I think a lineup of Chandler, Okafor and Love would be enough at center for the playoffs this year if you keep Chandler to only the first 3 minutes of each quarter so that he knows what minutes he will play, can play harder knowing that he doesn't have to conserve energy and play longer minutes, and he is still warmed up at the beginning of the games and halftimes; which should be a consideration for a player of his age and position instead of just trying to bring them off the bench cold. Chandler playing the first 3 minutes of every quarter hard can get you 2 rebounds, a lob and a couple of rim contests/block, which would equate to about 8 rebound, 8 pts and a block or two a game for a 12 minute per game players.....high efficiency for that position. Playing to start with both Russ and Harden, with hopefully PJ and House will make that much easier for him.

 

You are always welcome to turn off your brain to a PF averaging 18.9 ppg and 14.4 rebounds (2nd in the league) and has a championship under his belt.....if you choose to. MDA will play small ball in tight ball games at the end. If you prefer Tucker as your 5 with House as your 4 over Love as your 5 and Tucker as your 4, then I will just disagree with your choice. Now if MDA would always play a real center and not use small ball unless we are matching up with another team, I would keep Clint. But that's like wishes to be taken up on a spaceship, it might happen, but not likely.