MAJOR TRADE: Pelicans / Grizzlies

[Taker597]

Ehhhhhh... I think I'll be in the optimistic, but realistic boat on this one. I like the trade, but don't envision him being anything more than a Healthy Adams+. Like a healthy Adams would of been a solid starter. So, Im think probably good 5, but nothing mind blowing. He's praised for his consistency. Which is something we dearly need. He'll probably be 12/9.5 guy here due to looks and guards being tenacious rebound getters.

I think he'll cement himself as a true solution to our 5, but fans will digress when his game is more about consistency than flash. All in all, he doesn't solve Zion being swarmed, but you don't truly solve that with a 5 acquisition. You solve that with guards that can shoot consistently. He's not the most important piece of the puzzle, but his success is kind of dependent on the big piece that hasn’t happened yet.

[P_B_&_G]

Now lets trade for Dame and sign all the free agents we need to make a playoff run.

[bradael]

One concern I would have on Jonas is that he has a much higher usage rate than Adams. Jonas's usage rate usually sits around 20-22%. Adams's career average is 15 and it was 11.7 last year playing next to Zion and Ingram.

Zion is at 30 with Ingram at 28 since joining the Pelicans. Something is going to have to give. Maybe Zion and Ingram's usage drops slightly and they then spend more effort on defense.

[As I See It]

If JV opens season with Pelicans, I guess JAX's role won't change unless JV plays some 4.

[ramsters60]

If JV opens season with Pelicans, I guess JAX's role won't change unless JV plays some 4.

JV playing some 4 makes pretty good sense to me....

[TennMan23]

Welcome finally to the board friend. Please post more. Great post.

Thanks Silverfoxx, nice to be accepted by a Vet.

The funny thing is that some people are already saying that ?I can?t believe we gave so much for a 1 year rental on JV. Then when Griff gets a reasonable extension everybody will yell ?why did you have to get an extension.? It?s like you just can win in some platforms.

[msusousaphone]

It's the NFL's fault. Growing up watching football as my main sport, it's hard to wrap my brain around the benefits of expiring contracts and trading away players just to free up cap space to sign free agents. I think a lot of people do that, too.

And welcome!

[UNO Gracias]

My issue with this trade isn?t who we landed, I am happy to have JV (even if he is older than our ?timeline? indicates). He is a solid talent, and without him Toronto doesn?t win their title (that?s a deep cut), so he is like the reverse Jrue/AD, maybe Karma will swing our way this time.

Work has been busy today, but with these reports off my computer I would like to get down to what I hate about this trade, or more, what is a common trend in all of Griffs trades, which is his view of the assets we have in our war chest. I?ll get into this tomorrow.

[smcgull]

The Bucks just won a championship by not shooting a lot of threes. They scored mostly in the paint and had 4 great, if not good defensive players. Not everyone likes to throw up lucky 3s like Portland and Golden State.

[Rampart]

Could Jonas Valanciunas's relationship with Kyle Lowry help tip the scales for us in that direction. Griffin said at the very beginning of his run that he thought this was Jrue's team and only over time would it become Zion's - to put it all on a rookie would not be fair. Griffin could trip into a situation mirroring his original story but with Lowry instead of Jrue as a superstar veteran and with the benefit of Zion, BI, Hayes, NAW with more experience.

[Pelicanidae]

The Bucks just won a championship by not shooting a lot of threes. They scored mostly in the paint and had 4 great, if not good defensive players. Not everyone likes to throw up lucky 3s like Portland and Golden State.

The Bucks are a great example of a team who, rather than following league trends, leans hard into just becoming the best version of themselves.

They leaned had, at their core, Giannis and Khris Middleton. Both are very large, lengthy, defensively excellent players. What did they do? They bulked the team out with more large, lengthy, defensively excellent players. Doubling down on their strengths.

What is the Pelicans identity right now? Outside of Zion's paint dominance and great team rebounding, I don't think there is one yet. I agree that once we find one we should lean into it, but that has to happen first.

It's also worth noting that while the Bucks didn't shoot well in the playoffs and their defense allowed them to stay in games, the post-season and the regular season are a little different. In the regular season, before the game slows down, shooting is still very very important: the Bucks, who ''won a championship by not shooting a lot of threes'' were 8th in the NBA in attempted 3s in the regular season and 5th in 3pt %age. They took 37 a game and shot 39% on them These days there is a sort of minimum competence an elite team has to have from outside.

If you look at the top 3 teams in each conference, you find that all of them were in the top 10 in the NBA in 3pt %age in the regular season. The worst of them was the Sixers, who shot 37.4% from 3 as a team on 30.1 a game. By comparison, last year the Pelicans were 26th in the NBA (note: no team in the bottom 8 of 3pt% even made the playoffs) and only shot 34.8% from 3 on almost identical volume, 30.4 per game.

You gotta be at least a solid 3pt shooting team these days, at least in the regular season.

[smcgull]

Clutch Points said this about the trade.

New Orleans Pelicans: A+
While the Pelicans gave up draft capital in this deal, they got the ideal center fit alongside star Zion Williamson. Valanciunas is a stretch big that can allow Zion to dominate in the paint while spacing the floor. Although Adams is a good player, he was a terrible fit alongside Zion.

The Pelicans also get off of Bledsoe’s contract, who was another horrendous fit with the Pelicans. When you’re building around a guy like Zion, you need shooters, and that is not Bledsoe’s game whatsoever. This trade also clears $20 million in cap space for the Pelicans, which they can use to add more shooters.


An underrated part of this deal was getting draft picks back from the Grizzlies. Even though it required them to trade down, the Pelicans can still add some rookies that can make an impact. They only had to trade down 7 spots in the first round, 11 spots in the second round, and add one of the picks from the Anthony Davis trade.

The Pelicans nailed this trade and are bound to have a better offense in 2021 because of it.

[da ThRONe]

Short term I think the trade is solid. Jonas is a better fit (at least offensively) for Zion and Brandon. I question who's going to truly be available in free agency. But this trade mostly just feels like we are spinning our wheels. Is Griffin committed to starting Walker and Lewis like the rumors suggest or will he go out a overpay for a vet PG like other rumors suggest?

[MichaelMcNamara]

Short term I think the trade is solid. Jonas is a better fit (at least offensively) for Zion and Brandon. I question who's going to truly be available in free agency. But this trade mostly just feels like we are spinning our wheels. Is Griffin committed to starting Walker and Lewis like the rumors suggest or will he go out a overpay for a vet PG like other rumors suggest?

I dont think its an either/or.

Lewis aint ready and wont be for a few years. You can sign Lowry to hold down the position for a few years and Kira takes it over at 22, 23 years old - a similar age to Davion Mitchell is right now, and younger than Chris Duarte. Or you bring back Lonzo for now and trade him in two years if/when Kira is ready. Either way, I think NAW is a starting guard next season. To round out this offseason, you need two things: 1) The other guard 2) A power wing that can close games against smaller/faster teams

[RUFshreve]

This thread is just blowing me away. The national media is praising our FO for this trade, the Memphis fanbase hates this trade, hell even the other Pels message board loves this trade, but somehow this board is unhappy/unsure about it. Y'all need to remove last off-season's mistakes from your perception of this trade. This is a new off-season. Y'all need to learn how to take a win.

[Silverfoxx]

This thread is just blowing me away. The national media is praising our FO for this trade, the Memphis fanbase hates this trade, hell even the other Pels message board loves this trade, but somehow this board is unhappy/unsure about it. Y'all need to remove last off-season's mistakes from your perception of this trade. This is a new off-season. Y'all need to learn how to take a win.

Agreed. I just really hard to complain much about this trade. I get folks are used to being disappointed, but this ain't one of them times

[MichaelMcNamara]

This thread is just blowing me away. The national media is praising our FO for this trade, the Memphis fanbase hates this trade, hell even the other Pels message board loves this trade, but somehow this board is unhappy/unsure about it. Y'all need to remove last off-season's mistakes from your perception of this trade. This is a new off-season. Y'all need to learn how to take a win.

To be fair, I dont think anyone should have a firm take on it, since it is the first domino. Lets see what we do with 17. And more importantly, lets see what Griff does with the flexibility. Whoever he gets with that new found space is, in essence, part of this trade and the grade should be graded as such. We should have a firm take on this trade only when we know have a name or two to insert, instead of the cap space we have now

[Silverfoxx]

To be fair, I dont think anyone should have a firm take on it, since it is the first domino. Lets see what we do with 17. And more importantly, lets see what Griff does with the flexibility. Whoever he gets with that new found space is, in essence, part of this trade and the grade should be graded as such. We should have a firm take on this trade only when we know have a name or two to insert, instead of the cap space we have now

Any chance we can get FVV from all of this?

[clark griswald]

i have to say: i also watched the Grizz last year,wishing we had JV rather than Adams. and feeling like he was the difference between the teams making the play in

[MichaelMcNamara]

We have asked for FVV and OG and Masai has them off the table. Lowry makes a lot of sense but only if we can stay above the cap IMO. The key to this whole offseason in my point of view is using Lonzo as part of whatever big move qe make - be it Lowry or Duncan Robinson, whoever - so we can remain above the cap and use the MLE and the TPE we just got

[Eman5805]

I’m not in love with Lowry enough to want him to be THE move. But he and Val are bound to have prior chemistry from Toronto. I doubt that’s even the third or fourth motivation behind thr trade, but if we are in love with Lowry, it won’t hurt.

Unless Val pulled a Delonte West or something.

[AusPel]

In a vaccuum, I can safely say this is probably the best move Griff has done with his time here

I haven't forgotton he wasted 4 picks on Adams either

[Taker597]

In a vaccuum, I can safely say this is probably the best move Griff has done with his time here

I haven't forgotton he wasted 4 picks on Adams either

Sad, because OKC was looking to offload Adam's 30 million expiring contract and we was the only team dumb enough to give up assets and not give back salary. Particularly Bledsoe.

[AusPel]

Sad, because OKC was looking to offload Adam's 30 million expiring contract and we was the only team dumb enough to give up assets and not give back salary. Particularly Bledsoe.

Yeah, utter ********ing insanity to pay OKC 3 draft assets to take 30 mil Adams off their hands. Then double down with the extension

It's definitely on a par with 5/60 for Asik

This is a championship winning GM by the way, not some n00b like Dell was

[PELICANSFAN]

We have asked for FVV and OG and Masai has them off the table. Lowry makes a lot of sense but only if we can stay above the cap IMO. The key to this whole offseason in my point of view is using Lonzo as part of whatever big move qe make - be it Lowry or Duncan Robinson, whoever - so we can remain above the cap and use the MLE and the TPE we just got

Not a huge fan of investing a lot in Lowry (reportedly he is looking for fully guaranteed 3/$90 million). Looking for and getting are two different things, but Pels likely have to overpay to get him over contenders. Not sure I would call Robinson a big move either. While I would like to have a shooter like him on the team, he is pretty one-dimensional and I would expect will cost as much or more than the shooters from last year (i.e. more than 4/$72 million).