New Orleans Pelicans: Top 10 draft picks in franchise history

#4) Buddy Hield

This one may be a little tougher to justify, but hear me out. He may have only played 57 games for the franchise, but he also helped usher in a new era of New Orleans basketball—if you could call it that.

Buddy Hield was traded to the Sacramento Kings in a package that sent DeMarcus Cousins to the New Orleans Pelicans. Since then, Hield has emerged as a young star in the league and Cousins is settling for MLE’s in pursuit of winning a ring.

Might not sound great in hindsight, but at the time Cousins and Davis were supposed to be their own iteration of the ’86 Rockets’ twin towers. Obviously, that never came into full fruition due to nagging injuries, but there was hope and excitement.

Cousins recorded his best career statistics in the 65 games he played with the Pels, averaging 25.0 points, 12.7 rebounds, and 5.0 assists. But he’d leave after his first full season with the team, and now Hield is thriving elsewhere.

Hield registered 20.7 points this past season with 3.4 three-point field goals per game and 5.0 rebounds. As I mentioned before, Cousins is no longer in the Big Easy. One of the better “what ifs” of the past decade.