New Orleans Pelicans third quarter roundtable

Did the Pelicans make the right decision by making no significant moves at the trade deadline?

Brendon Kleen (@BrendonKleen14): As Nathan, Johnny and I have discussed in the last couple podcasts, they were correct in not rushing into a deal if there wasn’t one present. However, that makes it even more important that Dell Demps (or whoever is running the front office) nails the draft and the offseason. Suffice to say I have little faith in that happening.

Rick Stone (@RickStoneNBA): Absolutely. As seen during this year’s deadline, there was not a lot of major players dealt. And all the major players teams reached for got deals that were probably too much for them. Could the case be made for the Pelicans to have gone after a guy like Tobias Harris? Sure. But with so much in question on this team and no idea if the GM will be there long term, this was most certainly the right decision. Let the team find out their future before making decisions on it.

Charles LaRocca (@CLaRoccaJr): It is hard to say without knowing the specifics of any proposed deals, but its not like the Pelicans had much to offer in the first place. Expectations at the deadline should have been tempered going in, and the Pelicans staying put was always the likely outcome.

Nathan Heck (@nathanheck22): I tend to think the Pelicans did the right thing with just letting Eric Gordon and Ryan Anderson (hopefully) drift quietly off into the ether (AKA free agency). As Houston demonstrated in fairly hysterical fashion by pushing a Dwight Howard trade very hard, even top tier players were unable to net much of value in this current cap climate. For the first time in a long time, the Pelicans will have a fair amount of flexibility in the offseason, and with shakeups likely in the front office, that will be extremely important and valuable. The last thing a team should do is handcuff the future to the past when changing focus, whether that involves a new general manager or not.

Johnny Louisiana (@johnnylouisiana): No. The biggest issue for me is that they did not move Ryan Anderson. Many will argue that there simply wasn’t an offer available, but given that Frye, Morris, Green, and D-Mo (though that deal fell through) all netted first rounders I tend to disagree. To me, not trading Anderson means something very different than “there wasn’t a good offer” and seems more to mean “we’d like to resign him this summer.” Personally, I think he’s a terrible fit with this roster. Resigning him would be a mistake.

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