Why don’t we just keep everything and see what happens

Can’t go wrong picking Garland or Hunter

At first I was one of the ones that was all for packaging Ball and maybe the 4th pick, but now I also think maybe we shouldn't be too hasty to keep wheeling & dealing. We have a great influx of young talent- let's we what they can do on the court!

The way I see things:

New Orleans current core is Ball-Holiday-Ingram and we'll be adding pieces come Thursday. It's safe to assume that we select Zion with the first overall pick of the draft. So, if we add Williamson to our already assembled core we now have positions 1-4 locked up.

::The void of Anthony Davis lingers::

So, I think we make a draft day trade of the 4th pick for a big man to complete our starting 5.

A trade with Indiana for Myles Turner seems to make the most sense for New Orleans. If 1) Indiana is enamored with Garland, and 2) Indiana is ready to move on from Turner and bet on Sabonis.

I can also see a world where Aaron Gordon is a valued commodity to round out the roster. I'm not enamored by his fit with the current roster but will admit that it'd be a fun team to watch.

quote:

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if we can get a decent starter in FA

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The benefit of trading lets you handpick the type of veteran talent you want/need, with an already acceptable contract, whether the player would have actually chosen you freely. Quick mail-order but it costs assets.

FA, on the other hand, invites an inflated bidding war even on mid-level starters, and there's no guarantee you'll even get them. It's crap-shoot, but you keep your picks for a snail-mail rebuild.

Looking at the free agent class, I'm kind of leaning this way also..

#1 of course take Zion

#4 trade to Atl for #8,17 and they take Hillone of Garland, Hayes, White, Hunter, Culver will be there

At 17 get a draft and stash

If we keep Moore we have around 32 million in cap space, trade him off and we have a little over 40

My 1st free agency target would be D'Lo, 2nd option Brogdon

Next I go after Dedmon or Brook Lopez, or any stretch 5 that can give us 15-20 minutes a game

I would put Ball as the best 6th man in the NBA and let him have control over the 2nd team much like we tried to do last year with Payton (if we get Dlo)

Starting 5
DLo/Jrue/Ingram/Zion/Lopez or
Ball/Jrue/Ingram/Zion/Lopez

Backups
Ball/Hart/Culver/Kenrich/Wood or
Brogdon/Hart/Culver/Kenrich/Wood

Closing 5
Dlo/Jrue/Hart/Ingram/Zion or
Ball/Jrue/Brogdon/Ingram/Zion

I’d like to see Pels get a veteran leader like Thad Young.

I tend to agree. With the 4th pick, you have a high chance of one of those pieces hitting and being a star. Take a couple years to get the pieces in order

I also could get behind getting overpaid to get more assets to get more flexibility. With AD,we rushed to put pieces around him and never had much flexibility