A draft pick will not all of the sudden catapult this team to success.

I'm anti tank at this point. But let's say the Pelicans get Pick #4. You can trade it for a young prospect that's more ready, like MKG is supposedly available from Charlotte. Detroit has been on the fence about keeping Monroe, maybe #4 interests them.. Where does Memphis stand after this year? They have a new regime and an aging, expensive and declining core. Do they dare blow it up? Rivers + #4 for Gasol maybe? Denver is another candidate for a possible reset, Chandler/Galinari + Mozgov for #4?

Keeping our pick would in no way be a bad thing, I just don't want to end up with #6-10.

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but he won't make us a contender

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I'm pretty sure nothing is ever going to make a NOLA professional basketball team a contender. Ever.

I just want us to at least be interesting and fun to watch, and a new talented draft pick would do that.

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Keeping our pick would in no way be a bad thing, I just don't want to end up with #6-10.

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Well at this point in time it's either mid to late lottery or top 5. There is no playoff chance for us this year. It's just not going to happen.

So that means we either make a conscious effort to suck and do something extremely beneficial in the long run as far as acquiring talent, or we just mull around and go around.500 here on out, and absolutely nothing good comes out of it whatsoever.

It just seems like an easy decision to me.

Well I mean what small market team has ever been a legit contender for a period of time?

The Spurs the last 15-20 years

That is the only single example of this ever happening in the history of professional basketball

The odds aren't exactly in our favor

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but it could very well help develop some toughness in our young players.

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I like the way they've played the last 2 games. I have no problem with holding out Jrue, Ryno and even Tyreke until they are 100%, but forget the BS from that ESPN insider article that talked about screwing with Davis' minutes.

Team is not finishing any worse then sixth or so overall in the league. That gives you a whopping 2% chance to land one of the top three picks that possibly would land you such a player. Tanking is irrelevant.

Oh right. So yeah it's either fifth worst (given the protection) or -- percentages wise -- you get nothing.

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but it could very well help develop some toughness in our young players

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So my choices are get a top 5 talent in one of the best drafts in recent memory, or "develop toughness", some sports cliche that doesn't really mean anything?

Yea, I'll go with the top 5 player

I thought this way for a long time too. But, the team should really consider the pick and this year as a sunk cost i.e. we already payed for it and lost. If the Pelicans are not going to make the playoffs purely because of lack of talent, tanking doesn't really hurt the team.

I don't buy the argument that we should not try and tank because we might have to give the pick to the 76ers. It's illogical because losing the pick to the Sixers simply means that we had to pay the piper for a deal already executed. If we get the 5th pick, then we are able to defer that cost till another point. Thus, there really is only a benefit to be gained and no actual cost realized.

The only small cost I can see would be if tanking harmed the team chemistry. But, if long term players (Jrue/Ryno) are out with injuries, we plan on upgrading SF & C, and EG is not a long term piece, I don't really see how team chemistry would be affected.