New Orleans Pelicans: Revisiting the 2015 NBA Draft

What if I told you that after choosing Anthony Davis back in 2012, the New Orleans Pelicans would follow up the next three drafts without a first-round selection? Would you believe me?

Allow me to tell you something you already knew: Dell Demps failed miserably in the Anthony Davis era. He made incredibly unwise decisions in free agency and in trades, but worst of all might have been his drafting. In the Davis era, the New Orleans Pelicans traded away literally every first-round selection they made within just months of drafting them. The 2015 NBA Draft was no different.

So, why didn’t they own their first-round selection in 2015, you ask? Great question, they traded it away to acquire Omer Asik and Omri Casspi.  Asik had played 48 games the season prior for the Houston Rockets, averaging 5.8 points and 7.9 rebounds. Casspi had averaged 6.9 points that same season. These numbers don’t exactly justify gambling your future, do they?

Asik would play four horrific seasons with the Pelicans. He averaged 4.9 points and 7.2 rebounds in his tenure in the Big Easy but also collected a 5 year, $58 million deal for his troubles. Demps would go on to waive Casspi before he played a game in New Orleans. He would later get traded to the Pelicans again in the now famous DeMarcus Cousins deal, just to get waived again after one game. Jersey retirement in the near future?

The draft pick sent in the deal would materialize into Sam Dekker, so at least it wasn’t a franchise-altering talent that was missed out on. But that’s not really the point here; Demps traded away a crucial asset for a career back up center fresh off an injury and a spot up shooter that had career averages of below 1.0 three-point makes a game.

With their second-round selection, the Pelicans would go with Brendan Dawson out of Michigan State. He would be traded the same day to the Clippers for $600,000. Great stuff.