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It was summer league. Some guys look good and some look bad. But he got better as it went on and was one of the top 3 players by the end. He also has a reputation as a great defender, so not sure where you are getting that. Evans is a better player, no doubt, but he cost 3x more and will be playing off the bench. That doesn't make sense to everybody, like I guess it does to you.

Obviously couldn't have improved too much if you're shooting 19% from three. The three was supposed to be a major part of his offense too.
One of the biggest gripes about Ben Mac coming out was his lack of effort on the defensive end. What I'm saying is, we know what we are going to get from Tyreke, but for all we know Mclemore could become a massive flop. Give me the proven player at the higher price tag over the unproven player at less.

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Some of those teams have been great at times as well. The Blazers had a monster team awhile back that they stacked through the draft and they are pretty good now. Chicago is a beast and almost all of their players are home grown.

The Blazers will be drafting at the top again because they will be forced to trade Aldridge. And when they were at their best they were still just a 5 seed. The Bulls won't win a championship as long as LeBron is still playing in the East.

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Some of those teams have been great at times as well. The Blazers had a monster team awhile back that they stacked through the draft and they are pretty good now. Chicago is a beast and almost all of their players are home grown. You have to be good everywhere (trades and FA), but the draft is the core. Or at least it should be.

Actually, looking at the last 6 NBA champions, all of those teams were comprised of nothing but free agent pickups and players they had traded for outside of their core star.

Basically what I'm trying to argue, is that the Pelicans have a star or at least a future star and are trying to maximize their potential now. Even if we wouldn't have made the trade for Holliday, we still would have finished around 10th in the lottery unless we completely tanked. So what would you rather have, an All Star caliber point guard or a 200 pound center and the 11th over all pick? And don't forget that we still have top 3 protection on the draft pick, so if a few key players get hurt, we can tank our way back into the draft.

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So you have to do it in one off season? They couldn't add players over the next couple of seasons and gradually got better? Give Davis time to mature and develop a game, instead of putting it all on the line his 2nd year.. that's just foolish to me.

When moves that make your' team better in the short and long term are available, you make them. You can't depend on ping pong balls to win you a championship. It doesn't work like that anymore. There are too many variables involved when trying to build through the lottery.

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How many tiers do you think there are? I'm thinking like 4 or 5, so 2nd is pretty good. I don't think he is in Paul's range, he is a step below and that is still good. He's a step above Vasquez, but I don't think he's 5x better than him (which is how much more he makes).

My bad. Sort of sounded like you were demeaning Jrue's ability. And I'll tell you one way Holliday will always better than Greives. Greives was a fricking turnstile on defense. He couldn't cover any PG with speed. We replaced him with one the better defensive point guards in the league.

I look at it this way. We have a star (Davis), we have other potential stars (Gordon, Holliday), we have an excellent bench (Evans, Anderson), solid role players (Smith, Aminu, Rivers), young players with potential to develop (Miller, Withey) and an experienced end of the bench. We don't have to win now, we can still let Davis and co. continue to develop at their own pace, but it's obvious that the coaches and management fell that Davis is ready to lead a team now.