New Orleans has agreed on deal with Brooklyn assistant general manager Trajan Langdon

[Pelicanidae]

This was the move I was waiting for. I think we all knew, when Griff got given a new title rather than just GM, that a GM was probably incoming. That was made abundantly clear when he said that he was bringing in the right people and would be happy to give them the GM title if it was what was needed. It was then made concrete when he made the run at Trent Redden.

I was beyond hiring Langdon from the beginning, as I thought his experience rebuilding with an asset-strapped Nets team would help us a lot (I didn't imagine us getting the first pick haha) and that his youth and international experience would help pay off in the form of a dynamic outlook on the franchise and international scouting. To get him AND Griff is huge.

Pels are having the best offseason, not just this summer, but that I can remember any team having for a while.

[Nola3]

I haven't been this excited about the franchise since we won the AD lottery. Griff and Gayle are handling things perfectly so far and it looks like we're well on our way to being a top notch organization. This is the hire that I wanted from the beginning and I cannot wait to see what this completely revamped front office is gonna do.

[Tinman]

This was the move I was waiting for. I think we all knew, when Griff got given a new title rather than just GM, that a GM was probably incoming. That was made abundantly clear when he said that he was bringing in the right people and would be happy to give them the GM title if it was what was needed. It was then made concrete when he made the run at Trent Redden.

I was beyond hiring Langdon from the beginning, as I thought his experience rebuilding with an asset-strapped Nets team would help us a lot (I didn't imagine us getting the first pick haha) and that his youth and international experience would help pay off in the form of a dynamic outlook on the franchise and international scouting. To get him AND Griff is huge.

Pels are having the best offseason, not just this summer, but that I can remember any team having for a while.

It will be interesting to see how AD recalibrates his "reason for leaving" schpeel . He can either eat a little crow & come back or really look wishy washy.
I'm kinda thinkin that every excuse/reason that he has used thus far, Pels have addressed.

[Eman5805]

Why do people want walking injury reports like Bol Bol or Tacko Fall so much? I know we got Aaron nelson now, but I just can’t trust people that irregularly tall to have very long careers.

[Tinman]

Why do people want walking injury reports like Bol Bol or Tacko Fall so much? I know we got Aaron nelson now, but I just can’t trust people that irregularly tall to have very long careers.

It's a running inside joke with JJack

[Pelicanidae]

It will be interesting to see how AD recalibrates his "reason for leaving" schpeel . He can either eat a little crow & come back or really look wishy washy.
I'm kinda thinkin that every excuse/reason that he has used thus far, Pels have addressed.

I mean, it was abundantly obvious the moment he named the Knicks and Lakers that winning was actually not a priority at all. He wants to be in a big market.

[Tinman]

I mean, it was abundantly obvious the moment he named the Knicks and Lakers that winning was actually not a priority at all. He wants to be in a big market.

ZION just made New Orleans a BIG market!

[Pelicanidae]

Just gonna leave this stuff here in case anyone missed it, or isn't very active on twitter.

More:
- Langdon was head of scouting. Responsible for organizing college, league and international scouts.

- His background as a player allows him to give insight into decisions such as if the 12-15th man needs to be young players or Vets. He knows what a locker needs.

— Shamit Dua (@FearTheBrown) May 19, 2019

So the Pelicans hires two Griffins and will now draft a guy who can fly and is a little thick.

Does that mean Zions nickname should be the “Hippogriff”?

— Ryan Schwan (@SchwanBSS) May 19, 2019

Since inheriting the Pels, Gayle:

- Resisted all Lakers advances for AD, expediting their downward spiral
- Fixed the org structure
- Hired David Griffin, arguably the biggest "name" available, to run the team
- Added Aaron Nelson & threw out $1M to upgrade the team's facilities

— Mason Ginsberg (@MasonGinsberg) May 17, 2019

+ Trajan Langdon

[Taker597]

I mean, it was abundantly obvious the moment he named the Knicks and Lakers that winning was actually not a priority at all. He wants to be in a big market.

Itwas abundantly clear. He don't mind being a career loser aslong as he got his stats and in place he likes.. It was never about culture or any of that...

AD changed his looks, got his teeth fix, and doing everything he can to make himself more marketable and build his brand up. You can only build a brand up sooo much in New Orleans unfortunately. He's probably trying to open business, fashion line, and assortment of other business ventures. As AD has put it, "(The Trade demand) Is what is best for me and time to move on."

[Pelicanidae]

You can only build a brand up sooo much in New Orleans unfortunately.

I don't believe that. Lebron James built a world-wide brand in Cleveland, Ohio. Giannis is the face of the league right now from Milwaukee. The problem is that if you want to build a brand up in a smaller market, you need to have some personality. AD doesn't. He seems like he'd be a nice enough guy to hang out with, but I've been following this team his entire career and I couldn't say much about him outside of that. Nothing wrong wiht being a neutral personality, but it does make it difficult to break out on the highest scale of marketing.

Zion is going to come to New Orleans and have a bigger brand than AD did within a year.

[Taker597]

I don't believe that. Lebron James built a world-wide brand in Cleveland, Ohio. Giannis is the face of the league right now from Milwaukee. The problem is that if you want to build a brand up in a smaller market, you need to have some personality. AD doesn't. He seems like he'd be a nice enough guy to hang out with, but I've been following this team his entire career and I couldn't say much about him outside of that. Nothing wrong wiht being a neutral personality, but it does make it difficult to break out on the highest scale of marketing.

Zion is going to come to New Orleans and have a bigger brand than AD did within a year.

AD isn't Lebron. AD was never a box office hit. Lebron and Zion are... Zion brings the market with him. AD struggle trying anything going in his first 4 years in the league and he probably blamed the market. He wasn't getting those shoe deals or spirte commercials. AD never had that larger than life personality to draw people in...

[da ThRONe]

Ok Griffin is slowly winning me over.

[Pelicanidae]

AD isn't Lebron. AD was never a box office hit. Lebron and Zion are... Zion brings the market with him. AD struggle trying anything going in his first 4 years in the league and he probably blamed the market. He wasn't getting those shoe deals or spirte commercials. AD never had that larger than life personality to draw people in...

That's exactly what I was saying. AD never had the personality. That's got nothing to do with New Orleans.

Top tier personalities create the market. Like you said, Zion brings the market with him. Lebron created the market in Cleveland. Russell Westbrook somehow finds the market despite playing in Oklahoma City. It's not that ''you can only build a brand up so much in New Orleans'', it's that Anthony Davis can only build a brand up so much in New Orleans, and that's his problem, not the city's.

[da ThRONe]

I don't believe that. Lebron James built a world-wide brand in Cleveland, Ohio. Giannis is the face of the league right now from Milwaukee. The problem is that if you want to build a brand up in a smaller market, you need to have some personality. AD doesn't. He seems like he'd be a nice enough guy to hang out with, but I've been following this team his entire career and I couldn't say much about him outside of that. Nothing wrong wiht being a neutral personality, but it does make it difficult to break out on the highest scale of marketing.

Zion is going to come to New Orleans and have a bigger brand than AD did within a year.

Yeah his game isn't really flashy either. Curry shooting is sexy, Irving handles are other worldly, and Williamson bounce is godly. AD is just efficient. Few flash plays here and there but not enough to over shadow just being bland personality wise. And even then he gets pretty good endorsements.

[Pelicanidae]

Yeah his game isn't really flashy either. Curry shooting is sexy, Irving handles are other worldly, and Williamson bounce is godly. AD is just efficient. Few flash plays here and there but not enough to over shadow just being bland personality wise. And even then he gets pretty good endorsements.

AD has shown signs of the personality needed to really break out from a small market. There's a reason that that dunk over Nurkic in the playoffs last year, followed up with AD roaring from behind the pointing-Jrue became an instant-meme. Cause it was that wow moment. It had personality. It told the fans something, and it was a media image.

He just doesn't do it much. Which again, I want to be clear, is fine. It's perfectly valid to have a kind of neutral, boring personality. But it does, like I think we all agree, make it harder to get big fat endorsements and a world-wide brand from a small market.

[AusPel]

[GuardianAngel25]

We killed it this offseason! Really not a single thing that could have gone better!

[msusousaphone]

AD also doesn't take over games. He is consistent from tipoff to the final whi.....actually he kinda disappears at the end. Bricks some 3s. Everyone else mentioned as having made a brand for themselves can take over games and will their teams to win. Everything else you guys said, too. Spot on.

And yes. What an amazing offseason.

[Pelicanidae]

AD also doesn't take over games. He is consistent from tipoff to the final whi.....actually he kinda disappears at the end. Bricks some 3s. Everyone else mentioned as having made a brand for themselves can take over games and will their teams to win. Everything else you guys said, too. Spot on.

And yes. What an amazing offseason.

I'm sorry, I just don't believe that.

AD can't take over the game in the same way other players can, because the league is tailor made for guards and shooters these days and AD is neither. But I've watched too many games where AD basically won it for us in the final few minutes, with clutch rebounds (offensive and defensive), clutch put-backs, and clutch blocks to pretend that he's some chronic disappearer. This isn't James Harden, here.

[Primetime]

We killed it this offseason! Really not a single thing that could have gone better!

What’s crazy is the offseason hasn’t really started

[AusPel]

Guys this is how dynasties are built

[Creative]

Guys this is how dynasties are built

I will drink for that!

[N.O.Bronco]

Also worth noting Chris Finch did NOT get hired away from us.

So we will not be losing the best big man offensive system developer in the league when we could use him more than ever.

[msusousaphone]

I'm sorry, I just don't believe that.

AD can't take over the game in the same way other players can, because the league is tailor made for guards and shooters these days and AD is neither. But I've watched too many games where AD basically won it for us in the final few minutes, with clutch rebounds (offensive and defensive), clutch put-backs, and clutch blocks to pretend that he's some chronic disappearer. This isn't James Harden, here.

Only because he's been here so long.

AD is consistently noted as one of the best players in the league. Before this past season, I would have argued the best, but after the emergence of the Greek Freak I'd still say top 3.

But make a list of people you want taking over your team down by 1 with ten seconds left in the game and AD is not top 3. Maybe top 25......maybe.....he lost us just as many game chunking up ill advised 3s as he won. The most thrilling AD moment was when he hit that GW against OKC back when his career was just starting.

That's marketing. People want the game winners. He is not a game winner.

[kinglio21093]

Also worth noting Chris Finch did NOT get hired away from us.

So we will not be losing the best big man offensive system developer in the league when we could use him more than ever.

Pels keep winning.