Free Agency 2023

Restricted free agent F Grant Williams is finalizing a four-year, $53 million sign-and-trade agreement to land with the Dallas Mavericks, sources tell ESPN.

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 5, 2023

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Originally Posted by luckyman

Because you can't just grab a free agent even like him. He has some choice on where he wants to go.

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A slight bit more than the league min. would have probably gotten him

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Originally Posted by djrnno

A slight bit more than the league min. would have probably gotten him

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We have to acknowledge the fact that the new orleans pelicans are pretty low down the list of preferred destinations for ANY free agent at this time.

Cody Zeller is pretty much scraping the barrel.

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Originally Posted by luckyman

We have to acknowledge the fact that the new orleans pelicans are pretty low down the list of preferred destinations for ANY free agent at this time.

Cody Zeller is pretty much scraping the barrel.

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I am not sure if that is true. I think it has more to do with cap restraints than preferred destination status. Anybody who can get over the vet minimum was pretty much off the table for us.

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Originally Posted by djrnno

A slight bit more than the league min. would have probably gotten him

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We may have gotten him for the minimum. The Pelicans chose Zeller, likely from his time with Borrego. His strength is setting screens which is a big part of Borrego's offense.

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Originally Posted by PELICANSFAN

We may have gotten him for the minimum. The Pelicans chose Zeller, likely from his time with Borrego. His strength is setting screens which is a big part of Borrego's offense.

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Zeller's Basketball IQ will never hurt the team. He's a 'safe' pick up with a low price tag, and fills a team need. Unlike JAX (unfortunately), you know what you are getting every time out.

Will he necessarily win a game for the Pelicans? Probably not.

Will he lose a game for the Pelicans? I doubt it.

BTW: I wish JAX nothing but the best. Sure, he has a lot of maturing to go through, but I am convinced that the Pelicans (with it's revolving head coaching door) did him no favors.

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Originally Posted by As I See It

Zeller's Basketball IQ will never hurt the team. He's a 'safe' pick up with a low price tag, and fills a team need. Unlike JAX (unfortunately), you know what you are getting every time out.

Will he necessarily win a game for the Pelicans? Probably not.

Will he lose a game for the Pelicans? I doubt it.

BTW: I wish JAX nothing but the best. Sure, he has a lot of maturing to go through, but I am convinced that the Pelicans (with it's revolving head coaching door) did him no favors.

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who wins

jaxson hayes vs mo bamba vs bol bol (bol bol is now a free agent)

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Originally Posted by fullcourtpress

who wins

jaxson hayes vs mo bamba vs bol bol (bol bol is now a free agent)

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I'm prejudiced; I still believe in JAX. He has the most upside and it ain't even close.

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Originally Posted by As I See It

Zeller's Basketball IQ will never hurt the team. He's a 'safe' pick up with a low price tag, and fills a team need. Unlike JAX (unfortunately), you know what you are getting every time out.

Will he necessarily win a game for the Pelicans? Probably not.

Will he lose a game for the Pelicans? I doubt it.

BTW: I wish JAX nothing but the best. Sure, he has a lot of maturing to go through, but I am convinced that the Pelicans (with it's revolving head coaching door) did him no favors.

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I think that is a fair assessment. I wish Hayes would have worked out. I think he has the tools if he ever puts it together.

Zeller is more of an NBA player than MO Bamba, Jax, and Bol Bol combined. Does he have potential? No. Does he have upside? Not really. Does he give you hope he will turn into a starter? Not at all. But if we were in a playoff series and needed to send in a solid player for a rotation or two and the choices were Zeller, Hayes, Bol, and Bamba......every coach in this league is picking Zeller.

We're one of the big boys, now. Those other guys need to go to a non-competing team where they can get minutes to possibly grow. That's not us anymore. Going with Zeller over the other options is the biggest signal that we've entered win now mode that could ever be sent.......other than going into the luxury tax.

I dunno. Miami fans were pretty damn happy to see Zeller gone.

Have a feeling that'll be this place around this time next year too.

The New Orleans Pelicans are signing forward EJ Liddell to a new three-year, $6.2 million deal, with a team option in the third season, sources tell @TheAthletic @Stadium. Liddell was on a two-way contract after suffering a torn ACL in summer league last summer.

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) July 6, 2023

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Originally Posted by DroopyDawg

The New Orleans Pelicans are signing forward EJ Liddell to a new three-year, $6.2 million deal, with a team option in the third season, sources tell @TheAthletic @Stadium. Liddell was on a two-way contract after suffering a torn ACL in summer league last summer.

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) July 6, 2023

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Seems to imply the team believes in his recovery, which is good.

I was high on him coming out of college, had him as a first rounder. If he is even 80% of his college self, he fills a lot of holes for us on paper. Will he ever actually see play? No idea, probably not - but I hope so.

Can shoot, can pass on the short roll and high post, excellent defender, good weakside rim protector for his height, very fundamentally sound as a rebounder - boxes out well.

That was in college, at least. Will it translate, and will it survive his major injury? I hope so.

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Originally Posted by msusousaphone

We're one of the big boys, now. Those other guys need to go to a non-competing team where they can get minutes to possibly grow. That's not us anymore. Going with Zeller over the other options is the biggest signal that we've entered win now mode that could ever be sent.......other than going into the luxury tax.

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Is there any evidence whatsoever that we're ''one of the big boys''? That's not us anymore? Where is the proof that we're not there anymore? What have we achieved to make us believe that we're too good for development or upside?

Too good for developing prospects, not good enough to be worth paying the luxury tax. Sounds like the mid-tier to me.

Happy for EJ. Feel like he can develop into solid player for us.
And Dallas getting Grant Williams was a very good move for them.

We gonna take part in the Dame multi-team trade-a-palooza or do we get one more young guy on a minimum?

Happy to see the EJ move.

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Originally Posted by As I See It

I'm prejudiced; I still believe in JAX. He has the most upside and it ain't even close.

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Absolutely! Two seasons ago Jaxson played a lot; we were a playoff team.
Last year Jaxson didn't play much; we were not a playoff team.

Of course it isn't that simple to speculate on the causation, but I saw Jaxson's play be a game changer many times; for instance, against the Suns.

for the last time, he was a keeper IMO

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Originally Posted by Pelicanidae

Seems to imply the team believes in his recovery, which is good.

I was high on him coming out of college, had him as a first rounder. If he is even 80% of his college self, he fills a lot of holes for us on paper. Will he ever actually see play? No idea, probably not - but I hope so.

Can shoot, can pass on the short roll and high post, excellent defender, good weakside rim protector for his height, very fundamentally sound as a rebounder - boxes out well.

That was in college, at least. Will it translate, and will it survive his major injury? I hope so.

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Knowing who we have penciled in at the 4; it would be a good bet that he will see action, and plenty of it.

Happy for Mr EJ. Was excited to see him play last summer league. Will temper my expectations next year.

That injury is hard to come back from and look great immediately. Even against SL competition.

If he looks slow or bad, I hope people chill out with writing him off. It's still only summer league.

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Originally Posted by DroopyDawg

The New Orleans Pelicans are signing forward EJ Liddell to a new three-year, $6.2 million deal, with a team option in the third season, sources tell @TheAthletic @Stadium. Liddell was on a two-way contract after suffering a torn ACL in summer league last summer.

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) July 6, 2023

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They have to be high on him if they are giving him a 2-3 year deal after an ACL and not playing an NBA minute. Hopefully he is as good as we hoped he would be before the injury.

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Originally Posted by As I See It

Knowing who we have penciled in at the 4; it would be a good bet that he will see action, and plenty of it.

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my man with another killer lol....im going to disagree with you this one.....i believe the mills chick has given zion his wakeup card and zion will ball out to make people talk about him being MVP worthy.....

im going for it all..the only games zion will miss this season coming is maybe his kid birth or team giving him games off.....book it...

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Originally Posted by 6warddude

my man with another killer lol....im going to disagree with you this one.....i believe the mills chick has given zion his wakeup card and zion will ball out to make people talk about him being MVP worthy.....

im going for it all..the only games zion will miss this season coming is maybe his kid birth or team giving him games off.....book it...

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Until it isn't, history is on my side of this equation.

I thought losing EJ last summer was a low-key blow to the Pels. Thought he’d be a perfect 12-15 minute sub for Zion or a solid stop gap at PF if (when) Zion got hurt. Hope he plays that exact role this season…

When do the Pelicans have to be under the luxury tax threshold to not pay it?