re: This Draft . . . Our Pick and the Trade

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With this team's current position, its cap space and potential flexibility, making a giant leap forward this next season and making wise, long term moves are not mutually exclusive, imo. No one wants management to do something foolish, and I don't think it will.

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I agree, but I don't think we need to spend cap money just because we have it. Sign the right guys at the right positions. Like I said, Webster is an instant upgrade this year and makes us a competitive team IMO.

But I don't think our guys like Rivers and Austin will be in position to make title runs in the next year or two. Especially if we take a center with our pick this year.

I just don't want to go too fast and get stuck with a bunch of underperforming supporting players and have AD leave, a la LBJ, Howard, CP3 & Carmelo.
Lets get legit guys who make leaving less of an option, a la Durant/Westbrook, George/Hibbert, Rose/Boozer/Noah/Deng.

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We've sucked for several years now.

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I only consider this year 2 of the rebuild. The clock started for me with Anthony Davis.

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+1

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I do want to win now, but I also understand that team building the right way is a process. I want them to make the RIGHT moves. I don't want them to make moves to make moves. I do have patience. I expect to be in the 30s in wins this year and in make a much larger jump the following year.

Again, I want to win now, but I also don't want to get Posey'd.

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This x 1,000!

I agree. I would not want the team to invest heavily in free agency this season just to burden us with bad contracts for average players.

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A winning record in the post-Paul era would help show that it is indeed a new era to the few watching.

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But what if the post-Paul era includes Paul again?


















It could happen.

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Gyno has brought up Andre Blatche and I think he's just the kind of reclamation project to take a flyer on.

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I'd be willing to think about him but it depends on our roster come the start of free agency.

If we don't draft a center and decide not to make a run at Pekovic, I can see bringing in Blatche to backstop Lopez and Smith.

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But Blatche is pretty intriguing at a very low price. How much are you thinking?

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He should be relatively cheap like 1-2 mil a year because he's getting paid 7.7 mil from the wizards next year.

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But Blatche is pretty intriguing at a very low price. How much are you thinking?

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Hopefully you can get him cheap, but if there was a lot of interest in him I'd go up high enough to outbid the MLE, say $6 million per. But whether you get him for $2 or $6 million everything after the 1st year is a team option. If he works out $6 million per for a 22 mpg center next to AD is a fair price, and if he doesn't work out it's not like you gave up making a run at someone better to get him because he obviously wouldn't be at the top of the list of FAs for any team except maybe the Nets who can't pay him much.

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As far as winning is concerned, I've read lecture after lecture on this board from those who keep repeating the mantra of (essentially) having the patience to lose now and wait for it to pay off later. fricking when? We've sucked for several years now. We hit gold in the lottery last year and we'll have a decent pick this year whether we use it of trade it. At some point, the franchise has to suck it up and put the best team possible on the court for the upcoming season. The Pelicans need to make some moves now. I'm not saying they are ready to contend for a title, but they are definitely in a position to make some noise this next season.

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I don't think a good season (around .500) is out of the question next season w/o a big move. This team can compete offensively, it's the defense that was atrocious. That takes time, but there should be a natural progression with so many young guys still learning. Add some reasonable upgrades to the perimeter and I don't see how the defense isn't better.

This from Ziller talks about how much cheaper it is to be a good defensive team

LINK

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There are a number of interesting notes about the NBA's four conference finals participants including ... Three represent traditional small markets, or at least cities considered to be in the small market coalition. (San Antonio is top 10 in the United States in population, but its media market is ranked much lower.) The teams finished Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 7 in team defense over the regular season. They were Nos. 2, 7, 17 and 20 in offense. Three of the teams were outside the top 10 in payroll this season. (I'll let you guess which one was the exception.) The teams ranked Nos. 4, 12, 22 and 25 in payroll, per HoopsHype.

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Dude has been a shitshow (mentally) his entire career and had one "good" year last year playing 19 minutes a game. I sure as shite wouldn't want to take a chance on 6 mill per.

The team option would protect us a great deal, but I don't know how realistic that is.

Are we moving Lopez in this scenario? Or do we have Lopez and Blatche?

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I also think this is kind of a bad offseason to have money and a pick.

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agreed

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Second, I don't see this FA crop as being great either. Dwight and CP are not options for us. After that...meh.

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agreed

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Of the "reasonable gets"...Martell Webster is who I want to add. Other than that, I don't see a whole lot of homeruns or value.

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agreed