Really good insight on the asik trade from Mark Deeks

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Last season, the Pelicans were decimated by injuries. They suffered so many of them that they were granted a roster exception to sign a 16th player. Anthony Davis missed 15 games. Tyreke Evans missed 10. Eric Gordon missed 18 and limped in the other 64. Jrue Holiday missed 48. Jason Smith missed 51. And Ryan Anderson missed 60. They had a lot of new players to blood in and to begin shaping into a team, and yet they just could not do it because they had so little court time together.

But even then, even with all the injuries, even with the lack of cohesion and all the turnover, even with a patchwork quilt of a roster, the Pelicans still wound up only picking 10th in the draft this year (a pick conveyed to the 76ers). Short of significant injury to Anthony Davis, this was about as badly as a season could realistically go, and they still were not too dreadful. With a better run of health, the continued development of Davis and the addition of Asik, how could they possibly finish worse than that?

Looking forward to next year, then, the team should be better than this. The team should be a low playoff seed, and if they are not, they should very nearly be. In the Western Conference, a low playoff seed means a late first round pick - as evidence, see how this year's No. 8 seed, the Dallas Mavericks, were due to pick 21st this year. Returning all of their key players, with the addition of Asik, and the continued rise to superstardom of Davis, the Pelicans ought be in the postseason. And if there is another disaster, the 1-3 protection safeguards against anything too horrific.

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It is not, however, automatically a rental just because Asik is an expiring contract. The Pelicans are trading for Asik in the logical belief that they are trading for a 28-year-old defensive wall of a center. Warts and all, Asik's defensive metrics are off the charts, not as off the charts as they were when Tom Thibodeau was around to cradle them and down somewhat last year due to the obvious apathy he sported at times, but still very dominant on the glass and a wall in the paint, regardless of his shot block numbers. (Think Tyson Chandler blocks, not John Henson.)

It is, or should be, a giant infusion of talent at a position where giant infusions of talent are tough to come by, and the exact type of giant infusion of talent that the Pelicans need. Davis and Asik (for their interior defensive dominance) and Anderson and Asik (for the offensive efficiency and variety) both figure to be tremendous pairings. They will have him, they will give him the starting spot he misses, they will have his Bird rights. And they can keep him until long into his thirties if they wish to. The Pelicans must believe they are trading for a player better than any they could draft with the pick. And they are probably right.

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The direct comparison here is to the case of Marcin Gortat. When Washington traded for him just before the start of last season, they sacrificed a future first round draft pick to get him, despite him only having one year left on his contract. The pick they gave up was in what was known to be a powerhouse draft - this one - and was only top-12 unprotected. Prior to this season, Washington had not made the playoffs in the John Wall era. So a team with a young star on his way to superstardom felt they needed an experienced starting-calibre centre in the prime of his career, at the position they most sorely needed, despite it being a win-now move from a team to have not experienced even a shred of winning to date. And it worked - look how pleasing of a season they had.

So if you want to hate on the Asik deal, hate on that one too. They're the same deal. They're first round picks for an in-his-prime centre who boosts the playoff chances and helps the development of the young superstar. They're trading youth for veterans in the belief that good youth needs more veterans. They're trading for expiring contracts in the belief it need not be a rental. Not every trade has to open up a championship window, and not every first round pick keeps one open.

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