Originally Posted by
Pelicanidae
I think Zion would prefer to win one or two playoff series with that team than the zero he's won with the current team, and with JV's contract being expired, Naji's contract being expired, and the ongoing BI situation overhead, something has to be done.
I'd see room for excitement in that team though. You could start Trey, all of a sudden you're aligning Zion with Trey (minutes they played together have been overwhelmingly successful in their career), and Sarr is one of only a handful of legitimately exciting names from this draft (it isn't a great draft). Would love to see if he evolves into that true Jaren Jackson Jr type player that I think his upper outcomes resemble.
Ownership is always going to be an issue with the Pelicans, because while I think they may well pay for a team that's winning, they won't pay to get to winning. You have to already be winning first, and they may pay to keep that together, but not on potential. So it's on Griff to build a team that can win reasonably now and which also has the upside to explode. I think the situation I outlined there has that; we'd probably still win around 45 games next year, so that's slightly less than this year but not dramatically so, while you'd be opening the door for Trey to have his superstar leap as a starter and adding another young player who could be a potential all-star type guy on a rookie deal, so you get the upside without running into the finance issues.
I'd be excited to watch that team. Dejounte/Trey/Herb/Zion/Duren with CJ/Matt Ryan/Dyson/Sarr/Naji/Jose/Hawk as the bench mob? Tons of three point shooting, team that's built to play with pace, and I trust WG to establish defense as long as there's potential there, and I think the potential is very real there. And it wouldn't have the pall of doom that the current Pels teams do, knowing that the salary situation is going to force us to drop people soon.
It's true that it's not a lineup filled with huge names and all-stars, but that's fine. Denver only has one current all-star on their roster. People often don't realise that, but it's true: Jamal Murray has never made an All-NBA or All-Star team, yet we've all seen what he can do because the fit next to Jokic is fire and they compliment each other perfectly. That's the model I'd want to follow. All fit, no contract issues, stars or potential stars in multiple spots that we can just wait to see how they develop.
Obviously it's stunningly early in the off-season so there's a huge chance that better options comes up, but right now I like the look of that a lot.