The best thing for New Orleans right now is a complete rebuild, not just a retool. They are not going to compete in the West any time soon so keeping Holiday makes no sense. He's 29 years-old and has 3 more seasons under contract. 2019: $26,996,111 2020: $26,261,111 2021: $27,150,000 (player option) The Pelicans also have two expiring contracts: Solomon Hill: $12,758,781 E'twaun Moore: $8,664,928 That's $48,419,820 in salary the Pelicans should be looking to shed right now. This is the time to sell high on Holiday who had a solid season, and get more assets. Package him with those expiring contracts to say the Suns who desperately need a starting point guard and have the cap space to absorb salary, in return for the 6th pick. Then, there is the issue of Lonzo. There are two ways to go about it: either keep him and deal with Lavar, or trade him to say the Bulls for the 7th pick. I believe the Pelicans are better off keeping him and giving him a fresh start. He can potentially break out and is better than any point guard available in the draft after Ja Morant. Draft night... #1 Zion Williamson #4 Darius Garland #6 De'Andre Hunter That's a massive haul of youth and talent on draft day. Yes, I know conventional wisdom would have the Pelicans trade the 4th and 6th picks for future picks, but the Pelicans already own the Lakers picks for the next 5 years and I don't know how many more picks they want to put in their back pocket especially for a team that needs to bring some excitement back to the fans after losing their franchise player. Free agency... Re-sign Julius Randle to a long-term contract. Lineup... Lonzo Garland Ingram Zion Randle Hunter Hart Okafor Bertans That's an excellent rebuild loaded with youth, talent, and cost-control for the next 5 years. This is exactly what the Pelicans need in order to keep their fanbase excited about the team after losing a generational talent like Anthony Davis.
I was still playing city league and church league basketball at 40, but my once 36" vertical was long gone. Shooting stays with you the longest.
not w Zion on the team Zion is the younger and better version of Randle, w the same skill sets and limitation
Lakers will be getting atleast one other impact player this offseason. Super teams dying? Nah. New ones will be formed
Yes, that's true, but Randle had a breakout season averaging 21 PPG and 9 RPG. You don't just let a guy like that walk in free agency. If anything, you keep him for a potential trade in the future. Give Randle a 4-year contract same length as the time Zion will be on a rookie scale contract. There is no disadvantage here. A smart GM like David Griffin will make the right call and keep Randle regardless of identical skillsets.
Thanks. Are either of those amounts enough for the likes of Kawhi, Kyrie, Jimmy, etc? The top tier FA’s?
do u not know that Randle is a FA? he is not stupid enough to sign to be a mini-Zion, when he could be a bigger star elsewhere
They will turn out to be big bums sooner than you think. Media misleading. Whoever makes 25% shooting is big bum.
This is assuming the lakers aren’t willing to go over the cap. If those players go to LA it’s pretty safe to assume they’d do it when you already have lebron and AD
THAts true. We can counter anyone with iso play... we just need to spread the iso game around a bit. Chris had to step out of his comfort zone this year. We need another possible iso player.
LOL Ramona LOL Zach https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/26981805/sources-lakers-reach-deal-pelicans-davis The Boston Celtics had resisted including Jayson Tatum in a trade package, and that ultimately made the Lakers the clear-cut choice to strike a deal, league sources said.
So we need to hope that NO flips the #4 to a team that doesn’t want to do LA any favors and wants their draft pick in the door immediately.