re: Trevor Ariza is playing in a playoff game

We traded Ariza to move on from Emeka Okafor.

Well he is in the last year of his contract. Hes about to be a FA. Which is why they took Porter. But he has struggled to even get any PT this year.

1 of the positions that you can never have too many guys is the SF. Especially in the NBA now a days. Its a position where guys tend to be pretty versatile. Webster and Ariza play a good bit together as well.

And for the most part, his PER has always been solid. Its not like this year hes playing out of his mind and its his only year. Its not even his best season PER wise.

Offensively, hes playing great and most likely will come down a little bit. But not that much. And he has always been a very good defender.

quote:

---

For that matter, I'd love to have Okafor playing next to AD.

---

Bless your heart, you have no idea what the word "love" means.

Imagine how decent we would've been with Vasquez and Robin Lopez. Plus Noel or McLemore plus our pick this year.

How there aren't more people calling for dells head is beyond me.

quote:

---

Imagine how decent we would've been with Vasquez and Robin Lopez. Plus Noel or McLemore plus our pick this year.

---

Our pick this year is most likely the late lottery which is not much better than a pick we can buy with cash. If we get really lucky in the draft we still keep it. Also the fact we did as well as we did with the injuries tells me the original trade was the right idea.

I personally am very happy with Jrue Holiday over Vasquez and McLemore. Robin Lopez would be a nice role player, but he isn't some stud we should be that pissed about. Noel hasn't done anything to warrant us to be regretful about. He also looks more like a defensive PF which I believe is not what we are looking for.

The one thing Dell has done is acknowledged that tanking for prospects every year is not necessarily the best thing to do. We hit it big with AD it is time to start surrounding him with complementary player and other potential studs.

Jrue is a stud PG who can play both ends of the floor.
Gordon while overpaid is a solid SG starter. If we move on from him fine, but the guy is a very good player.
Evans looks to be a great addition and his contract looks reasonable. He looked fantastic when he finally got starter minutes.
Anderson is one of the best shooters in the league and has probably one of the best contracts for a non rookie contract.

This team has great young talent and is capable of being competitive in the top half of the league and growing to a contender. People are complaining about the Pelicans having a few small holes as far as role players, but the Pelicans have a handful of players who would all start on most teams around the league.

quote:

---

Okafor is really abysmal offensively, but I agree.

It's crazy to think, but Okafor and Ariza would be two complimentary pieces that could do very well with this current group.

---

This. I'm not promoting Okafor as ideal, but he was pretty solid defensively and he did have a few night where he scored. Certainly a substantial upgrade over what we now have at the 5. Again, it's just an observation on my part. Not a suggestion of what we should do in the off season.

And Ariza, as said above, would work out great here, imo.

quote:

---

Imagine how decent we would've been with Vasquez and Robin Lopez. Plus Noel or McLemore plus our pick this year.

How there aren't more people calling for dells head is beyond me.

---

Noel has one knee and is doubtful to be anything other than an average NBA center. Tyreke>>>>>>>>Mclemore.

Vasquez and Lopez were average players that got sold high. You forget that both can't play D. We also got a solid big in withey back.

The pick would've been 10th-11th regardless of which team was playing.

Jrue+Tyreke+Withey>>>>Noel(or Mclemore)+Vasquez+Lopez

If you don't see that I can't help you.