GM for a day: New Orleans Pelicans

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...How does reality mesh with that vision of the organization?

The general philosophy of adding young veterans to a rebuilding team has merits, especially when you've got your franchise player in place. There is a lot of hit-and-miss when it comes to the draft, and even if you accept a lower ceiling with guys such as Holiday and Evans as opposed to a potential lottery pick, you also have a higher degree of certainty. The pair has proved they are NBA-caliber rotation players (Holiday a little more than that), and they also have a track record of production and style of play that you can plan around. There is still some murkiness about the redundant skill sets of New Orleans' perimeter players, though. Holiday, Evans, Eric Gordon, Brian Roberts and Austin Rivers are all ball-dominant guards most comfortable when attacking off the dribble and creating offense for themselves. Worse, the glut of guards means that the Pelicans couldn't find room for second-round pick Pierre Jackson, who has lit up the D-League for more than 29 points per game and looks like he can be a classic off-the-bench offensive spark in the mold of Earl Boykins, Nate Robinson or Isaiah Thomas.

What key decisions lie ahead?

With no likely first-round pick and a salary-cap situation that promises to be snug this summer, it's time for Demps to restyle himself as Dealer Dell. His roster needs to be balanced with a bona fide defensive center to pair with Davis, and a couple of rangy shooters and defenders who can work off the Holiday-Davis dynamic. To focus his roster, Demps needs to pare down the redundancies, and that can only be accomplished by creative work in the trade market. Gordon would be a prime candidate to go, but his onerous contract makes that unlikely. If the Pelicans can move him they should, but otherwise, I'd slot Gordon in as next year's sixth man. Then I'd go about finding takers for Evans, Rivers and Anthony Morrow. Keep potential free agent Roberts, and find room for Jackson. Also, New Orleans must find a forward who can defend well enough to cure Williams of his unhealthy fetish for Al-Farouq Aminu, who has his merits, but not in a 26-minute role. New Orleans trails the league in corner 3s, and Aminu's excessive court time is a chief reason for that.

...How does the team get from here to a championship?

The Pelicans have a firm two-man foundation in Holiday and Davis. If the roster can be pared, and Gordon could adapt to a sixth-man role, a deep and versatile bench can be formulated by most of the existing parts on hand. Few teams could feature a reserve one-two punch like Gordon and Anderson, and the duo also would give Williams all sorts of lineup flexibility. Unfortunately, if all that is true, then it means Dealer Dell must unearth three starters to go with his star tandem. One of those needs to be a two-way wing who can do a high volume of damage while primarily working off the ball. The other two are a 3-and-D wing stopper, and our defense-and-rebounding center. The player prototypes we're talking about are Bradley Beal, a young Shane Battier and (sorry) Robin Lopez. Those types of players aren't easy to find, and that's a long laundry list for one offseason of trading. But when Demps checks off those items, this is a roster that could rocket forward very quickly.

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As long as he gets the minutes, that's all that matters.

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and (sorry) Robin Lopez
sigh...

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I feel like putting a guy making 15 mill that was a starter on the bench would diminish his value even more.

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but that guy fricking sucked in reality

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He wasn't the long term answer.

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