I expect big moves this off season.

[Eman5805]

A thought flidders through the octopus in my brain. We got Jrue Holiday when no one thought he was even available for trade. So what wing do you think is off limits but is clearly not a franchise guy? Namely outside the Paul Georges, LeBrons, Melos, and Durants?

DeMar DeRozan? Gerald Green? Nic Batum?

[SnowofSX2]

A thought flidders through the octopus in my brain. We got Jrue Holiday when no one thought he was even available for trade. So what wing do you think is off limits but is clearly not a franchise guy? Namely outside the Paul Georges, LeBrons, Melos, and Durants?

DeMar DeRozan? Gerald Green? Nic Batum?

I'd love to get Green on this team! If only if only lol

[MichaelMcNamara]

A thought flidders through the octopus in my brain. We got Jrue Holiday when no one thought he was even available for trade. So what wing do you think is off limits but is clearly not a franchise guy? Namely outside the Paul Georges, LeBrons, Melos, and Durants?

DeMar DeRozan? Gerald Green? Nic Batum?

Difference is we had a ton of assets and cap space to make an uneven trade. Dont have either of those this summer.

Take AD off the table, what is our best trade asset. Maybe our 2015 pick? Seriously. Gordon, Ryno, and Jrue all end their seasons with surgeries, Rivers is okay but not worth much, and we dont have our 2014 pick.

Cant really look at last yr for a reason to be optimistic that something out of the blue will happen because our situation is so much different.

[Pelifan]

Let's say Pierce thinks about signing with the clippers and Garnett tells Brooklyn he wants out to go play for the Clips as well. Brooklyn is cap strained anyway for two years needs talent.

could we do a Gordon and Ely and PJax or Rivers (for sweetener) for Thornton and Garnett (who would be bought out immediately) deal.
Maybe send Marcus to a third team (memphis for Tayshaun Prince?)

That would be beautiful to me, just do that, bring in cheap 1 year talent and call it an offseason. We need to put our core for the future on the court to prove themselves while maintaining flexibility. I wouldn't splurge on role players just yet.

[UNO Gracias]

I don't doubt if we are healthy we are a top 10 team in the league, its a matter of can we stay healthy. If we have a season like this past one next year, then blow things up. Can't build a team around a bunch of broken pieces. But if we are healthy, and if we can get rid of Gordon, we could be a force to be reckoned with in the 14-15 off season. An upgrade at sf (like MM says) and this is a different team.

[MichaelMcNamara]

I would say this was a 46 win team with average health. Upgrade Aminu, add chemistry from them playing more together and I see a 50+ win team given relative health


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[Ludiculous]

He doesn't know how to play basketball. He's slow, fouls a lot and just doesn't know what to do on the floor. Not to mention he has to be constantly monitored for injury concern.

Dang that's sad. I remember watching him play way back in the day and being really impressed. But then again I was pretty young

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[HornetGuru]

If everyone stays healthy, AD improves, jrue and tyreke have their chemistry and Ryno's back is fine i'm saying 50 wins. U can laugh at me but I'm a strong believer this team is full of young studs who will get better every year and Davis will be a 25-12 guy this year.

Plus add in a SF who can actually score, defend and rebound like j ham and a center like hill or blotch. Yeah I don't see any way we don't make the playoffs outside of injury.

[HornetGuru]

A thought flidders through the octopus in my brain. We got Jrue Holiday when no one thought he was even available for trade. So what wing do you think is off limits but is clearly not a franchise guy? Namely outside the Paul Georges, LeBrons, Melos, and Durants?

DeMar DeRozan? Gerald Green? Nic Batum?

Chandler Parsons, Kawhi Leonard.

2 studs but not franchise players.

Ryno for Kawhi!

But seriously, I dont think this team needs a big splash, we have the big pieces we need in jrue, tyreke, ryno and AD, we just need a competent SF and Center and an injury free season and we are golden IMO.

But back to Kawhi, I would do anything to get him.

[ILLHornetsFan]

I totally agree Michael we need a servicable small forward.

[UNO Gracias]

HG, If we could pull Kawhi for Ryno I would label Del the greatest gm of all time.

[Rafa Brazil]

We will have major upgrades next season! We will replace Roberts for Holiday, get a 6'10 dead eye shooter named Ryan Anderson coming off the bench, a way more experienced Davis, an improved chemistry between AD and Evans, a few complementary pieces to come off the bench surrounding AD and a year closer of Gordon opting out. Now that's an offseason!

[Ludiculous]

Honestly if Demps can move Gordons contract I would be satisfied with that as our big move

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[Eman5805]

Honestly if Demps can move Gordons contract I would be satisfied with that as our big move

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He got someone to trade for Okafor and Ariza, though Ariza worked out for the better in the long run. Not to mention Juju for Belinelli. Hope he has at least one move worth of mojo left.

[WisconsinHornet]

-I think at the very least, we need a Rolo type on our bench.

Robin Lopez is easily a top 10 center in the NBA. A "Robin Lopez type" is not going to be on anybody's bench. Probably one of the more under appreciated players in New Orleans basketball history and we should have hung on to he and GV. Both were winning players on insanely great deals, and collectively were much better assets than a vastly overpaid Tyreke Evans.

[ramsters60]

Robin Lopez is easily a top 10 center in the NBA. A "Robin Lopez type" is not going to be on anybody's bench. Probably one of the more under appreciated players in New Orleans basketball history and we should have hung on to he and GV. Both were winning players on insanely great deals, and collectively were much better assets than a vastly overpaid Tyreke Evans.

I totally respect your opinion, even if I don't happen to agree with it.... and just to clarify things a bit, I foresee "substantial" things happening for the upcoming year, but probably not "huge".... an effort for upgrading the 3 position likely leading the way....

[PELICANSFAN]

Losing Lopez was huge for this team. It is sad that Demps gave him away for nothing given the fact that he was young and on a great contract. That was a huge mistake by Demps. He gave away a young starting center in order to overpay for a 3rd guard. The thought was he had a plan in place to move Gordon, but clearly he didn't.

[MichaelMcNamara]

I just cant imagine people watched the Portland/SA series and are sad Lopez is gone. He is better than anybody we have now (not hard), but I have no doubt that soon enough we will have a much better fit for our team up front.

You just cant have that guy on the court against most teams in playoff basketball - which is almost all P&R. He had a good matchup in the first round because Dwight refuses to P&R, but that is not the norm.

[nolaslim213]

I just cant imagine people watched the Portland/SA series and are sad Lopez is gone. He is better than anybody we have now (not hard), but I have no doubt that soon enough we will have a much better fit for our team up front.

You just cant have that guy on the court against most teams in playoff basketball - which is almost all P&R. He had a good matchup in the first round because Dwight refuses to P&R, but that is not the norm.

Agreed. He has his good qualities, but he is a major liability in the PnR.

[Ludiculous]

Agreed. He has his good qualities, but he is a major liability in the PnR.

Major liability might be going to easy on him

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[MichaelMcNamara]

The only complaint I have is that maybe we could have got more value for him that Withey. That is legit. But I dont want him anywhere near this team as we start to ascend. You arent winning 4 playoff series with him getting major minutes. I agree, he is good value for his current contract, but I also agree with Dell that finding another big to give you 20 solid mins is way easier than finding another Tyreke. I wouldnt be totally shocked if Withey could give you that in 2 yrs for 18-20 mins per game. Meanwhile, guys who can take over games like Tyreke dont grow on trees.

I still make all the recent moves over again, except for Gordon. That is the mistake that needs to be rectified. If he wasnt on the roster, we wouldnt be having any of these debates because we would be heading into the offseason with the Core 4 and 20+ mil in cap room. Nobody would complain about that.

[BallSoHard]

The only complaint I have is that maybe we could have got more value for him that Withey. That is legit. But I dont want him anywhere near this team as we start to ascend. You arent winning 4 playoff series with him getting major minutes. I agree, he is good value for his current contract, but I also agree with Dell that finding another big to give you 20 solid mins is way easier than finding another Tyreke. I wouldnt be totally shocked if Withey could give you that in 2 yrs for 18-20 mins per game. Meanwhile, guys who can take over games like Tyreke dont grow on trees.

I still make all the recent moves over again, except for Gordon. That is the mistake that needs to be rectified. If he wasnt on the roster, we wouldnt be having any of these debates because we would be heading into the offseason with the Core 4 and 20+ mil in cap room. Nobody would complain about that.

We talked about this! The (finishing) 4 Horsemen!

[MichaelMcNamara]

We talked about this! The (finishing) 4 Horsemen!

Sorry, habit.

The horsemen!

[PELICANSFAN]

I just cant imagine people watched the Portland/SA series and are sad Lopez is gone. He is better than anybody we have now (not hard), but I have no doubt that soon enough we will have a much better fit for our team up front.

You just cant have that guy on the court against most teams in playoff basketball - which is almost all P&R. He had a good matchup in the first round because Dwight refuses to P&R, but that is not the norm.

Disagree. He may be a liability in P&R defense, but he is more than solid in all other areas. He is a good enough scorer, rebounder, rim protector and FT shooter. Compared to most centers in the league, he is a bargain and solid starter. There are not many teams that wouldn't take a 25 year old (just turned 26) 5 who contributes 11/9 and nearly 2 blocks a game , shooting 55% from the field and 82% at the line for $5 million a season. I would venture to say that he is in the top half of the starting 5s in the NBA. Giving him away in order to overpay Evans without having a plan for a replacement was a mistake IMO. It was tolerated at the time because the expectation was that Demps certainly had a plan in place to move Gordon and would upgrade the 5 at that time. There was no way he would invest $36 million in cap room on 3 guards. However, that was wrong as Demps did not have a plan. Hopefully, he has a plan now to unload Gordon and improve the 5 and 3.

[MichaelMcNamara]

They really didnt need him to sign Evans, though. If people want to get on Demps, know this - they could have kept Lopez, they would have just had to say goodbye to Aminu and never sign Stiemsma. Both those guys were signed using cap room, totaling 6.3 million. They could have kept Lopez instead. THAT was the choice they made - Aminu, Withey, and Stiemsma over Lopez.