New Orleans Pelicans: Revisiting the 2010 NBA Draft

The 2010 NBA Draft very well could represent the epitome of incompetence for the New Orleans Pelicans (then Hornets). View this at your own risk.

The 07/08 and 08/09 seasons for the New Orleans Pelicans* were both successful; they culminated into two postseason appearances and a 64 percent winning percentage over that span. All good things eventually come to a conclusion, and such was the case for the 2009/10 season in the Big Easy. Tyson Chandler was gone, and their core was aging with every passing season. To keep Chris Paul content, they had to at minimal nail the 2010 NBA Draft and incorporate some talent around their cornerstone—they didn’t do this.

The Pelicans returned to the lottery in the 2010 NBA Draft, after what was their most successful stretch in franchise history. This was obviously what the front office had not intended for in the CP3 era, but it had become a reality.

With Paul’s prime just around the corner, there wasn’t much room for error moving forward. They needed a little luck or ill-advised judgment at the hands of multiple organizations; just like in the 2005 NBA Draft, but this time around it didn’t happen. New Orleans selected 11th, Gordon Hayward had gone 9th, Paul George had gone 10th—leaving them to select Cole Aldrich (the obvious next talent).

Aldrich played three years of college ball for the University of Kansas. In his junior year, he compiled averages of 14.9 points and 11.1 rebounds, but in his senior year, those numbers dipped to 11.3 points and 9.8 rebounds. However, he did have 3.5 blocks per contest in that senior year and as we mentioned before, Tyson Chandler was out of town. Could he replace the former second overall pick?

Spoiler alert: No he could not, and you know why? Because he never played a game for the Pelicans. He was shipped alongside Morris Peterson for Quincy Pondexter (the 26th pick in the ’10 Draft) and Craig Brackins (the 21st overall pick in the ’10 Draft). So essentially the Pels turned the 11th pick into the 21st and 26th overall picks for Aldrich and the rotting corpse of “Mo Pete”.

I mean that doesn’t sound horrific—especially compared to some of the draft trades they made prior—does it? Let me answer that for you, this is going to get good. Brackins didn’t play a game in the Crescent City, he was shipped to Philadelphia for Jason Smith and Willie Green. Green played one rather forgettable season in New Orleans, while Jason Smith was, well, Jason Smith. Do you remember him? Do I need to go into detail on this one?

Quincy Pondexter played but one season in New Orleans as well before being shipped to the Grizzlies for Greivis Vasquez. Vasquez would play a little more than two seasons with the team before being shipped to the Kings in a sign-and-trade that involved Tyreke Evans heading to New Orleans. The Evans that was one of four players in league history to average 20 points, 5 rebounds, and 5 assists as a rookie was not the same player for New Orleans.

A really weird era for the team, was Evans a point guard? Was Jrue Holiday a point guard? Why is Eric Gordon getting worse with every given season? Why is Omer Asik here!? What is happening!?

This may have been difficult to keep up with, so let me provide you with a quick summary of events. Basically, Dell Demps made a bunch of trades for the sake of making a bunch of trades. This got the team nowhere, they were better off just selecting Patrick Patterson with the 11th pick (ended up going 14th)—which was where NBADraft.Net’s mock draft had him going. Would’ve saved everyone a giant headache.

Once again, the Pelicans didn’t own their second-round draft pick. They had traded the rights to that pick and a 2012 second round pick (which turned into Jae Crowder) for 1.5 seasons of Marcus Thornton putting up a ridiculous amount of shots up for the number of minutes he played.