Draft Night Analysis

Pelican fans, the media, and posters on this forum (I don't assume all posters are actual fans based on some of these posts) all believe this is one of the worst trades in recent history. I think most are slightly overreacting.

Full disclosure, I believe there should have been some protections on the pick. If they wouldn't have accepted it with it ; being strong enough to walk away would have been preferable.

However, many NBA insiders believed that if Giannis was going to be traded this offseason, it would have happened before the draft, considering the teams most likely to trade for him had high lottery picks this year, and Milwaukee would have wanted them included in any deal. An average Milwaukee team in the East with Giannis is not a bottom-4 4 team. Even if they decided to move him at the deadline, the Bucks don't have the rights to their own first, so they have no incentive to tank.

Similarly, the pelicans are in the same boat. Everything that could go wrong went worng for them injuriy wise. We expect Zion to miss games, but the total games lost to injury from the rest (BI, Murrary, Trey, Herb, etc.) was unreal. We wern't good , but we wasnt as bad as our final record. We activly decided to tank. We played games down the stretch where the only recognizable pels were Jose, JRE, and Elfrid Payton. Since we don't own our pick, I don't see us doing that again. There will be teams actively tanking with worse rosters next year. For these reasons, I feel most people are overreacting.

Also, if the trade was so historically bad, and this makes the front office look so incompetent, why is it not equally bad for the Bulls, Rockets, and Trailblazers? It was reported that we offered the same deal to teams picking 9-12, and they turned it down. Shouldn't their front offices be ridiculed for drafting a player like Cedric Coward at #11 instead of trading back 12 spots and gaining this sure-fire top 3 pick in next year's draft?