Pelicans trade Adams, Bledsoe #10 to Grizzlies for Valanciunas, #17

I dont follow NO, but the pellies always make these middle moves w/o going anywhere. What exactly is their plan?

 

Keep ZIon happy no matter what. This is a salary dump to set up a move to get the guy who keeps Zion in NO.

 

to be honest, i think they are clueless. They traded for 2 terrible fit players in adams and bledsoe, and one year later they are giving value to memphis to get rid of them for Valaciunas, who we dont know how well he will fit with Zion.
If they dont right the ship soon, Zion will leave them.

 

Jonas is underrated. Elite post player (top 1% in the league), has improved his jumper to the point that last year he shot 56% from midrange and 36% from 3. While not ideal, he is a better fit than Adams next to Zion. Plus his contract is shorter and less money than Bledsoe/Adams.

This is a win now move from the Pels to keep Zion happy. Moving back 7 spots in the draft plus a late 1st from Lakers is a good price to pay for upgrading their team while shedding bad contracts which allows them to make further moves. I also like this for Memphis. They are acknowledging that they can’t contend as currently constructed and are going back to asset collection mode. They are being patient which is sensible. A good draft this year combined with a potential consolidation of their wing depth to an all-star level player would serve them well.

 

They're making cap room for Lowry. I don't know if he goes there but they just traded 2 huge contracts and should have lots of space now if they let Lonzo and Hart go. It's been widely reported that Lowry is the target.

JVal
Zion
Ingram
Naw/Kira Lewis/18 (maybe Tre Mann?)/ MLE
Lowry

Would be a pretty good squad. That would at least be a very serious playoff contender.

 

lol at being a serious playoffs contender when they have a stacked team and all the precious high picked players...tanking and building tru high draft picks is a joke

 

The Pelicans were in the playoffs in 2018. It's only been their 3rd losing season. Zion has only been on the team for 2 seasons and he missed more than half of the first. And they only have 1 top 5 pick they actually drafted on the team. If they make the playoffs next year that will already be a massive success. Even LeBron took 3 years to make the playoffs. When you lose your superstar like that, you really can't do much better.

 

Pelicans won the trade. They're able to move Adams and Bledsoe, all they had to do is give up a pick.

Valanciunas and a new coach, probably still not a contender, but enough of a shake up to quench the fanbase and Zion family's NY dreams. If they miss the playoffs next year, Pelicans should look inward and not outward for excuses.

 

Serious question, why the hell is everyone trying to make a run at Lowry? I guess this free agent class is really depleted. I love Kyle and think he has been a very good player the last few years, but the guy turned 35 this year, going into 36. Unless you are close to being a championship contender, I don't understand why you go after Lowry.

It makes sense for Lakers/76ers, but for Pelicans, it doesn't for me. I guess i understand the thing about keeping Zion happy, but then you shouldn't have traded away Jrue lol.

 

its like tilman fertita pulling the strings to put the folks in the seats and not being able to be patient with the process

I hate that man

 

mane 'their' picks worked and almost everything went ideally for them, they got multiple stars and great role players and a great coach, still couldnt be farther from the playoffs. And what about your average tanker that cant even nail the high pick in half the decade of tanking?
tanking for success is a joke.. you just cant lose to win... it doesnt work that way, it never did

 

It gotta suck to be a Pelicans fan. You go from one unicorn big with injury issues who wanted off that team to another unicorn big with injury issues who might also want off the team.

If it was me I would have traded Ingram, Bledsoe, the #10 and those Lakers picks (2022, 2024 1sts) for Lillard. Losing Ingram is sorta painful but you get a legit All-NBA player to pair with Zion. Re-sign Ball so he can play in the back court with Lillard.

 

The plan is to keep Zion happy until he'll inevitably ask for a trade to LA or NY.

Edit: beaten

 

Good to see you back Vivi.
That's it. We need some more trades to bring back some lurkers and gone posters from the dead.

 

Well..they just saw how a dinosauric CP3 lead the Suns to the finals so they think they can at least make the POs with Lowry
They didn't trade Jrue on their own will he was the one who demanded to be traded.

 

What are you even talking about bro? Aside from Zion, their picks have been Hayes, NAW, Lewis Jr and while those guys are interesting prospects, none of them would really be considered a hit. And they never even really tanked anyway. Those guys were the 9th, 18th, and 11th picks respectively. And they only got Zion cause they miraculously won the lottery as just the 8th worst team in a season where Anthony Davis straight up quit and refused to play early in the season. The other 2 years, they were trying to make it but Zion got injured and they barely missed this year. They've never been at the bottom of the league. They never lost less than 30 ganes. You could even argue that they'd have been better off tanking that first Zion year after he got injured cause they might have had the chance to pair him with LaMelo. I know you're trying to make an anti tanking point but you can't just shoehorn it into a situation where it doesn't even remotely apply.

 

lol this is why i wrote 'their' picks in quotes

they got high picks from other teams in form of allstar/good young players like ingram, lonzo, hart but for the purpose of discussion it doesnt even matter they had a ton of high picks and even allstars still doing nada

 

I still fail to see where they tanked like you claimed. They were putting in a legitimate effort every single season. If they make the playoffs next year that'll be just 3 years since AD cried his way out of town. If we rebound from the Harden trade in 3 years or less it'll be an absolute triumph.

 

The Pelicans had to move Adams. He was just horrible next to Ingram and Zion..... the spacing on both sides of the floor was terrible.

So this is a "W" for the Pelicans no matter what.

 

Jonas's 0.3 made threes per game are going to radically change the spacing, eh?

Very soon, they are going to have to move Jonas too. Zion and Jonas will not work, imo.