What’s Next For the Pelicans?
Mandatory Credit: Chris Humphreys-USA TODAY Sports
Things have been a bit quiet in the last few days here on Pelican Debrief, mostly because things have been absolutely silent in regards to the Pelicans.
Since the Tyreke Evans surgery was announced after it happened the organization has not had anything come out the could be constructed as news. There have been no recovery updates for Jrue Holiday or Ryan Anderson, no draft workouts in case they plan on getting back into the second round or attempt to sign undrafted players, or even any rumors about how the team plans to proceed going forward.
Despite the silence though there are some things that the team must do in the foreseeable future so we should start getting news to react to and talk about in the next few weeks.
First of all expect those workouts to start happening soon. New Orleans won’t have any first round prospects in to get a look at but expect to see some guys that may fall in the mid to late second round, where the cost of acquiring a pick isn’t that great. One player to look out for is University of Florida big man Patric Young, who already met with the team at the NBA Draft Combine and wrote a bit about it over at Onlygators.com.
"The head coach [Monty Williams] wasn’t there, but I did get a chance to speak with general manager Dell Demps. He was a pretty cool guy. The interview seemed to go well, and they seemed impressed by me, said they would love to get me down to New Orleans for a workout. It was a pretty typical interview overall. You can tell if a team has done homework on you because they asked about my dad playing football in the past, my history in general. I don’t think any of them knew that I played baseball in high school and baseball was my first sport, so I think they were all surprised by that.Read more: http://www.onlygators.com/05/20/2014/patric-young-path-to-the-2014-nba-draft-combine-part-i-img-grizzlies-pelicans/#ixzz32qTqTmuzONLY GATORS Get Out Alive"
While all those decisions and workouts go on the team must also figure out what they plan to do with the roster in free agency and beyond. Right now the team has three restricted free-agents (Darius Miller, James Southerland and Brian Roberts) and three unrestricted free-agents (Al-Farouq Aminu, Jason Smith, and Anthony Morrow who has indicated he will wave his player option to become a free-agent) to make decisions on.
What decisions they ultimately make will determine how they proceed in the draft, as right now if they brought every one of those guys back (highly unlikely) the roster would stand at the maximum amount of allowed players, though Melvin Ely really doesn’t count, he is there purely as a contract to trade. If you start seeing rumors over the next few weeks that the Pelicans are working on acquiring a second round pick it probably means they have decided at least one of those six players is done in New Orleans, otherwise it makes no sense to give up assets (even just a bit of money) to acquire a player there is no roster spot for.
The final decision is on Pierre Jackson, though that seems almost entirely tied to Roberts’ future. Eventually the Pelicans need to decide what exactly they value Jackson as and if they see him as an NBA level contributor expect to see Roberts head out the door, as having four point guards (Holiday, Austin Rivers, Roberts and Jackson) is a complete was of money and roster spots. If not then Jackson may be the team’s avenue for acquiring that second round pick they could desire, either way this summer seems to be the time we get a conclusion to the Jackson saga.
So while things are quiet now they should start picking up shortly for the Pelicans. Make sure that you stay tuned here at Pelican Debrief for reaction to it all when it does finally happen.