2017-18 Finish: 23-59 

Season Highlight:

At the beginning of the season I highly doubt General Manager, Gavin had the title in his sights. Whatever vision of success he had quickly turned in the other direction. An Achilles injury to the best player on his list, Mike Conley, may have been the straw that broke the camel’s back.

The eyes were then set on a new prize, and that prize was the number one pick in the 2018 rookie draft.

Seeing as that was goal for the season, one could say that the Pelicans season was a success.

Gavin, then in strategic fashion moved the number one pick for pick four and a potential future lottery. This move being made with the thought of increasing the acquired talent and increasing the New Orleans squad for years to come.

There was a breakout season for Alex Len, which led him out of the state and many more moves.

 

Season Lowlight:

It is hard to pick a season lowlight, considering it appeared that a high draft pick was what the Pelicans wanted to achieve this season, but a definite low light, not just for The Pelicans buts also for the League and fans all around the globe, was the starting five that was continuously rolled out.

The starters consisted of Jason Smith, Caleb Swanigan, Jake Layman, Wesley Iwundu and Tyler Dorsey. Not to say some of these guys aren’t players to watch for the future, but it’s safe to say they’re not starting quality as of yet.

Apparently the official merchandise of The Pelicans refused to make and sell the jerseys of the starting five, stating its not worth their time and effort.

I disagree, I think its great to see a young kid running around with his favourite player, Jason Smith’s jersey on his back.

 If that wasn’t the case, losing two starting calibre point guards to injury for long periods of the season would have definitely matched the criteria.

Conley suffered a season ending Achilles injury and also had surgery to smooth over a bone protrusion in his heel. Reports are that Conley will be cleared for contact this month, so hopefully he can get back to his former self.

 

Best Trade:

Trading the first overall pick in the 2018 draft for pick 4 and Indiana’s 2019 first round pick.

From people close to The General Manager, Gavin, it was a sure thing that he would be taking Deandre Ayton with the first pick in the draft. Which no one could have criticized him for.

It was not until the final moments leading up to the draft that The Pelicans were approached by the Indiana Pacers, who had their own eye locked on to a talent they could not risk being their at pick four.

Gavin, obviously believing in the talent proceeding Ayton, was willing to move away from him. With the fourth pick he put his team’s future in the hands of Marvin Bagley the third. A 6’11” forward out of Duke.

This deal not only landed Gavin a potential future star but also got him further stocks in next year’s draft. Depending on how Indiana go next season could potentially be another lottery pick.

In the sense that the Pels are in full rebuild, future stock is always a good thing.

 

Worst Trade:

Looking through the transaction history it’s hard to find one that I would say is a stand out worst. That’s not implying that they are all bad, but meaning that there aren’t really any stand out bad ones.

Majority of the deals are on the low end scale, in many occasions moving around bad contracts for other bad contracts.

The thing that stands out though, is how The Pelicans, a rebuilding team are sending future picks in deals that the main piece acquired is over the hill.

One that comes to mind is a deal with The Portland Trailblazers. A deal that sent Chandler Parsons, Semi Ojeleye and a good second round pick for JR Smith and Brice Johnson. Understandably Parsons contract is good to get rid of but giving up Ojeleye, a solid 3 and D player, who has potential to have a career as a solid role player, along with what will be a decent second round pick for Johnson who hasn’t made any name himself and Smith who can’t keep track of the score of the game he is playing in, let alone score 20 points a game.

 

 Other Notable Trades:

 It seems that whenever New Orleans and Portland, two of the bottom dwellers of the league, get bored, they move around players to each other from their sub-par teams.

 There were four separate deals between them both. Dealing names such as, Brandon Knight, TJ Leaf, Furkan Korkmaz, Miles Plumlee and Wayne Ellington as well as the ones previously stated.

 Clearly, if these are the names I chose to mention, none of these deals were blockbusters and turned the league on its head.

 

Free Agency:

 I am not overly familiar with their plans regarding free agency. The team doesn’t have an abundance of GM points, and trading 27 for Kyle Korver during the season wouldn’t have helped that.

 Might not be a bad idea to splash some around to some of the smaller fish in the pond, that might not receive any attention from other teams.

 

Star:

The unlikely star and now ex-Pelican was Alex Len. Len along with other big men in the league such as Ian Mahinmi and Georgios Papagiannis, who must have got their hands on the basketball with the talent from Space Jam, because they all had break out years.

Unfortunately Len did not want to stay and was therefor traded. The Pels did receive three second round picks, which I think is a great deal, considering he may have been out the door anyway.

Looking at his season stats he looks like a legitimate Star, although he did only played 29 games for his former team this season.

He had averages of 25 points, over 1 steals and blocks and over 13 rebounds per game. Numbers like those would definitely compare to the premier big men of the league.

Draft Grade:

As mentioned earlier, the Pelicans had a seat at the business end of the table on draft day.

Following the aforementioned draft deal the Pelicans had the number four pick at their disposal.

After much deliberation they settled with Marvin Bagley the third. It was reported that there was a lot of star potential in the lottery, but choosing the right one is the hard part.

Bagley, an uber athletic big man, who averaged 21.0 points, 11.1 boards, 1.5 dimes, 0.8 steals and 0.9 blocks in his college season at Duke. Hopefully big things ahead for the Pels front man.

New Orleans also had the 43^rd and 52^nd pick of the draft. Selecting Chimezie Metu and Ray Spalding. Chimezie, a 6’11” forward out of USC has impressed early, earning himself a three year contract , but unfortunately he fractured his wrist during summer league, but should be good to go for the regular season.

Ray Spalding, another forward has also got himself a contract, so obviously the pelicans had an agenda to go big in the draft and seemed to have made some good decisions, but only time will truly tell.

Draft Grade: B+

 

The Future:

To quote D:ream, “things can only get better”.

With the team getting Conley back, a venerated star of the league, a potential future star in Bagley, the addition of Ryan Anderson, hopefully consistent play from Reggie Jackson and no incentive to lose seeing as they don’t have their own 2019 pick. Hopefully the New Orleans Pelicans can string together some wins.

With the mentioned players contributions and no reason not to want to win, I believe at least 30 wins for the Pelicans would be safe to say. Gavin is a stand up guy and has the future in mind for the Pelicans, so lets hope it pans out for him.