re: Ideal Pelicans First Offseason 2013

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Monty/Dell are gonna go after D

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This is what moved Oladipo to number one for me. He seems be a great off ball defender, always ending up in passing lanes and making the right rotations. Our inability to make consistent rotations make me want to throw things.

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OK, so you want to:
a) Trade a fringe 6th man of the year player + the potential 2012/13 NBA assists leaders on contracts that have a combined 5 years/$30m remaining for a "valuable expiring"
b) have Gasol, on his last legs, mentor Davis for a season (this is the "big" payoff)
c) be limited with our options in 2013/14 because Gasol's contract ate up our flexibility
d) after probably missing the playoffs and letting Gasol walk, we have the privilege of taking our newfound capspace to do some combo of: overpaying FA's to come here (as we have to do in this market), trading for overpaid players on other teams that don't want to take salary back, and crossing our fingers that Demps can find some gems like, I don't know, Ryan Anderson and Greivis Vasquez

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well done

...you brought it all together beautifully at the end.

Oh, I think they would love that offer. I just don't like it so much for our end.

Dude my bad, I completely forgot about Barnes. I was really only looking at Thompson. I really like Barnes too. He can't find enough time in that rotation. If we could make it work without including Vasquez it would make me think about it a little harder. And that takes me back to my original belief, that they wouldn't want to do it, just for Gordon, in his current state. If Gordon comes out like his old self next year, all of that can change.

We're trying to get young talent here. I don't see how throwing away 2 young, cheap, talented players for an old expensive player helps us

I think the "mentor" aspect is overrated

I'm going to lose it if I see Danny f'n Granger's name mentioned in a trade scenario again. Damn people, he's going to be 30 in a month and is no healthier than EG. Yea, he's from New Orleans, no one cares. Like the dude saying to bring in DJ Augustin to start over GV because he can sell tickets.

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I'd trade Vasquez and Anderson for P. Gasol. Gasol is also an expiring contract and solves the Center position.

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i disagree. pau is very over payed, hes old, and he has been experiencing injuries lately. Not worth our cap space for a guy like that. I'd rather have lopez

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I think the "mentor" aspect is overrated

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Incredibly overrated. In the original scenario, we were getting Kevin Martin to supposedly mentor Austin Rivers. The only thing those two have in common is an ugly release.

I like your posts because they are almost always offer a different take than most around here.

I agree with your idea that a trade is the best route- other than this years probably top 5 pick, I think they are most likely to find a core piece that way

But I don't think this proposal works because it just isn't sustainable.

That roster gets you 45-50 wins and the playoffs. What then?

1) You let the vets walk. Barring a miracle, you just took steps back in the win column by losing 3/5 of your starters. And now you've got tons of cap space for a small market team :( Demps is reduced to trying to pull trades again for high priced vets

2) You resign players, if they even want to stay in NO, on the wrong side of 30 to keep around the first winner in three years. Meanwhile these old guys are going to be declining horribly just as AD is entering his prime and needs his max extension. :(

3) Thank to a playoff spot, the draft pick is in the 20s. You have Davis/Smart/Rivers? to build around. Smart better be the second coming or that core is in trouble.

I think going after one pricey vet makes sense, but three, all with one year deals just doesn't fit Davis's timeline- which is the only one this teams needs to be worrying about.