Team age/Roster construction

Weren't we one of the youngest like a year or two ago?

To me, 12th oldest means this team is full of players in their prime. When dell signed them they were just getting in their prime. Unfortunately, it doesn't matter if a player is in his prime if he's always hurt

I think Demps has done a good job of replacing the cheap depth you get out of the young draft picks with reclamation projects like Roberts/Babbitt/Cunningham/Ajinca. The problem with that strategy is there is no future in it. You don't have the long term contractual control so if they get good you can't keep them cheaply enough or trade them (see Brian Roberts). I'm not sure if we're done trading picks, we still need another starter, so I could see trading the pick for a 2 way starting SF, but short of that I think we're finally at the point where who we can draft may be more valuable than who we can trade the pick for.

This is a basketball team. One or two players can greatly skew the numbers. Replacing a Jeff Withey for Kendrick Perkins for instance makes us look a lot older but has no real
Impact on the roster. Our core ten or so are all in their 20's. What more can you ask for.....other than health and better results of course.

The average age thing has always been a bit of a lark to me. The core guys, excepting Davis, are in year 7 or 8 now. Even 2 years ago at 24, they were veterans entering relative stasis rather than young guys with potential for accelerated growth. That doesn't make the idea of young vets a "bad" idea. That was the very point of the move- young guys ready to play higher level ball now and can develop continuity over time.

The flaw in the plan- and every plan has pitfalls- is trading young, cheap depth (draft picks/Rolo/Vasquez) for NBA ready players. The team has been thin and the unfortunate amount of injuries (especially to Holiday) has badly exposed this flaw. Like ATL says, they're relying on reclamation projects rather than a younger guy they developed maybe ready to take on a bigger role. Again, it doesn't mean the plan is "bad" or that they should have done something different. Just that luck (and perhaps poor injury prevention/management) has not been with the team the past few years.

EDIT: Arguably, the plan has worked. The Pels are fairly on schedule. Biblical injuries have derailed that path to start this season though.

Ideally a team with a high average age should be better on the margin due to a greater level of experience. Counter to that, the younger teams typically have less experience and are therefore slightly worse due to being prone to youthful mistakes. It's not a huge stat to read into, unless you're comparing two similar teams on the margins. Pels are a weird team construction wise, where its not a huge thing to read into. It has been the last few years, but not this one. Our young vets have grown into actual vets now.

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Our core is young but not drafting is hurting our depth most of all.

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The core isn't young. You can maybe say that Davis is young. But he's really not that young anymore. He should be hitting his prime now, either this year or next. Guys usually do around their 4-5th season. All our other players are past their primes and starting to hit the downside..

They are all 25 and 26. That's young, if you think that that's old why don't you take a look at the Spurs core players.

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They are all 25 and 26. That's young, if you think that that's old why don't you take a look at the Spurs core players.

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It is a weak comeback to throw HOF players our to dispute a point. You might as well throw in Jordan, Kobe and L. James too. Those kind of guys aren't the norm. Comparing Duncan to R. Anderson and expecting comparable results just doesn't make sense. But if we did, you'd see that Duncan peaked around 24, his 2-3rd seasons in the league. Every year since then has been a little less. He's 7ft and skilled, so he can play forever probably. But that doesn't change than he has been in decline for over a decade.

Now, let's take a Pelicans player you call young, E. Gordon. He is only 26 years old. Which in your mind is still pretty young. Except the average age of an NBA player is 26. Also, he is in his 8th season. He has had an untold number of injuries and is a shell of the athlete he used to be. Also, his stats have declined for 5 straight seasons, from his personal bests in his 3rd season (see a trend there?). To expect him to become better now or expect improvement is just silly. He will decline from here on out and probably be out of the league before he is 30. How is that young?

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Do you think Anderson, Gordon, Evans, Asik or Holiday will ever have a better season than one they have already had? There is no chance..

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Evans, Asik, and Holiday all posted career high PERs last seasons So Id say yeah, the could have a better season than they already had considering they just did that a year ago (when they were young! amirite!). Davis has gotten better every season, and he's the only one that this team needs to keep improving.

Gordon hasnt been the same player he was in LA, but he is off the books after this season. Anderson, see ya after this season.