re: Memphis will Likely trade for Bojan Bogdanovic

I guess that's the leverage you have when you are in no rush to trade those guys. They're productive guys who would be valuable rotational pieces for any playoff team.

Utah is playing it smart since they need a good reason to to trade those guys. When you are winning games with those pieces, teams need to give you a good reason to let them go.

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Virtually no one right now would say we are the most likely team to win a title. That alone tells me we absolutely should be trying to improve the team if possible.

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On his pod yesterday Russillo said that the Pels might be the "scariest" team in the west not factoring in health. They said the only thing holding them back really is experience, which trading for someone mid-season isn't really going to add experience to our young stars/role players. Sure we can trade for a vet that has playoff experience, but realistically we're going to go as far as Zion and BI can take us and they need to be more battletested.

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Zion is in year 4, BI I think year 7. CJ is like 31 years old. The time was 3 seasons ago, we are late.

The time is absolutely right now.

We just hit the halfway point of the season as the 3 seed. We need to do all we can to start this contending clock this postseason. These windows are usually small, we cannot afford to skip a year.

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Going into the playoffs with the current roster isn't skipping a season, it's getting experience and seeing where our faults are when playing playoff basketball. The time to make a move is the coming offseason, IMO.

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On his pod yesterday Russillo said that the Pels might be the "scariest" team in the west not factoring in health.

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Yep, listened to that one.

Not even a might be, Russillo said if the Pels are healthy, they are his pick to come out of the West, and KoC even agreed.

Counterpoint, he also said the Pels are the "worst bet" to be healthy. Can't really argue that unfortunately at the moment.

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They said the only thing holding them back really is experience, which trading for someone mid-season isn't really going to add experience to our young stars/role players

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We have guys we like, that do make a mark in the regular season. But the playoffs are a different beast.

Graham should not be in a playoff rotation. As of right now, Dyson should not be in a playoff rotation. Depending on matchups, Jose may not be a dude you want to get more than 7-10 minutes. 1 month ago, I'd say Naji may not be a playoff rotation guy, but he's proving that wrong.

But you get the point, not everyone in our awesome, deep 10-11 man rotation is necessarily ready to be in a playoff rotation.

Again, has to be the right guy/right value, but we can 100% use another dude for our playoff rotation. I also agree that earlier in the season I woulda said an additional rim protector but now I feel the biggest need is another shooter.

Malik Beasley I think is the best fit across the board IMO.

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The parity alone is the reason. You don't do an irresponsible, win now move, but you do trade expendable assets for a good vet rental or a real asset for someone that can fit the rotation long term.

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Could not agree more.

As you stated, it's not make any move. Still has to be smart. But now is the time to start moving all those draft picks for pieces, even if it's giving up a 1st for a rental for 1 season.

Due to the Pelicans start Griff and Langdon are really in the driver's seat. There should be no rush to make an immediate deal, and if a deal is made, it's likely to happen closer to the deadline at terms favorable to the Pels.

Pels are at the point where they win against the teams they are favored most often which speaks to their talent and depth. The bigger issue is how they fair against the upper echelon teams (Healthy Warriors, Celtics, Nuggets, Bucks, Nets, and Grizzlies). Pels haven't fared as well, however in fairness they haven't been at full strength either.

I expect the next three weeks to be an evaluation period projecting how close the team is to winning this year as to whether they'll push their chips in or just make a trade around the margins to free up rotational minutes.

The Big 3 show individually they are primed to make a big swing this year and also that the Pelicans depth is real with more room for growth, however not as much data in the collective due to injuries.

What is known is that the Pels are still vulnerable against teams with mobile bigs, and perimeter players who can manipulate the PNR. My preference would be to lean toward establishing a third big along with Val and Larry who can function on the perimeter over an additional shooter. Although TM3 hasn't been the volume score some would have liked (particularly with injuries) he's proven to be a dead-eye that can take over games (see playoff run last year) as a fourth option.

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My preference would be to lean toward establishing a third big along with Val and Larry who can function on the perimeter over an additional shooter.

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My thoughts is agreed that we need both.

But the 3rd big is more so for the regular season. Meaning, you can't really have 3 bigs in a smaller playoff rotation.

But the shooter is a move for the regular season AND playoffs.

So I still want both and we need both, but I think the shooter is more imperative as that person can actually be in a playoff rotation every game. Whereas with that 3rd big, they're not necessarily playing every game in a postseason.

Rotational big is the only glaring hole we have. Billy and Hayes can't be relied on if we want to make a playoff run. On paper a JV/Nance combo should be enough but when JV is not playable against certain matchups, we are really in a hole.

I feel like I heard somewhere that Utah wants a first for Vanderbilt. They'd also want a first for Beasley. No way am I giving 2 firsts for those two players, especially if I would have to include one of our good young players.

ETA: frick trading with Ainge, he only completes trades when he's the one performing the nonconsensual sex.

Utah won't take that deal. They aren't trading those guys for trash and picks. They're trading them for a potential player they can keep or flip plus picks .