New Orleans Pelicans: David Griffin kickstarts NBA’s newest process

If the NBA universe didn’t know before, they know now. The New Orleans Pelicans future is overwhelmingly bright, large in part due to the efforts of one man, David Griffin.

January 28th, 2019, New Orleans Pelicans’ franchise cornerstone, Anthony Davis, publicly requests a trade from the organization. The situation is bleak; resident GM, Dell Demps, is soon after relieved of duties. An era is coming to an unfortunate conclusion, or at the time was viewed as unfortunate. You see since then the organization has made all the right moves, and the perception of the team has completely altered in a span of just five months.

Gayle Benson has done an absolutely remarkable job of evaluating and finding the best possible talent around to usher in a new era in the Big Easy. First, David Griffin was named VP of basketball operations, then Aaron Nelson was brought in to alleviate training staff woes, Trajan Langdon follows suit and is named GM, then the team won the draft lottery, and soon after they brought in WNBA legend, Swin Cash, in an executive role.

Griffin understood he needed the correct people around him and knew Benson was committed on making that happen. Wherever David Griffin has gone, success has followed. He has a championship pedigree, he did what was asked of him to Cleveland. Now he was given the keys to a rebuild, and he’s made all the correct decisions since.

His first task was trading away Anthony Davis and getting the best possible haul in return, he did that. Negotiations seemed endless, but he waited it out and when the best conceivable package made itself attainable, he struck.

It’s not just that he got the Lakers’ young core (besides Kuzma); that’s just scratching the surface on this trade. The draft capital the Pelicans got in return has set up a variety of future transactions. Oh, and as I mentioned before, they won the draft lottery—which culminated into this man.

Williamson is a class act, he’s down to Earth, and he’s got a fun, bubbly personality. He’s the type of guy you want to be around and will be a complete blessing to this organization and fan base. The Pelicans got not just a special talent, but a great human being as well.

Agreed, Zion, “let’s dance”. The night started with the team selecting Williamson with the first overall pick, but they were just getting started.

In the Lakers haul, the Pelicans also received the rights to the fourth overall pick. Griffin turned that into more capital and shed Solomon Hill’s contract in the process. It may not have been the “sexiest” option around—it involved no stars—but man has it opened up a multitude of trade avenues.

With that eighth pick, the Pelicans went with Jaxson Hayes out of the University of Texas. Hayes averaged 10.0 points—on a super efficient 72.8 percent shooting—5.0 rebounds and 2.2 blocks as a freshman this past season. Hayes and Williamson should make for an insanely athletic, defensively intimidating frontcourt (if he is in fact on the roster at the beginning of the season).

With the 17th pick, the Pels went with Nickeil Alexander-Walker out of Virginia Tech. The team is in desperate need of shooting, and Alexander did connect on 1.7 threes on 37.4 shooting as a sophomore this past season. But again, will he be on the roster at the beginning of the season?

Shedding Hill’s contract put the Pelicans in a position where they can make a splash in free agency, as the team now has a little more than $30 million to play with according to Keith Smith of YahooSportsNBA.com

So, let’s look at a brief summary of what Anthony Davis’ services landed the New Orleans Pelicans:

• Brandon Ingram/Lonzo Ball/ Josh Hart
• 2019 first round pick (4th overall) which then transformed to 8th,17th, and 35th overall selections and freed up more cap space
• 2021 reverse protected first round pick (1-8 NOP), (9-30 LAL)
• 2022 unprotected pick if ’21 conveys
• The right to swap picks in 2023
• 2024 unprotected first, but the Pelicans can defer to 2025

Yeah, David Griffin is alright at what he does. Trading away Davis has opened up a world of possibilities for the team, it’s not crazy to think that Griffin and company’s work isn’t done yet this summer.

Sam Hinkie and the Philadelphia 76ers tanked for years, acquiring draft assets and starting “the process”—which lead to a certain degree of success. It’s noteworthy that they didn’t have a player of Davis’ magnitude to trade to initiate their process, but Griffin has accomplished a similar feat—in just the span of a couple of months.

The New Orleans Pelicans have no shortage of young talent, they have cap space to find a player(s) that best fit their timeline, and they have a boatload of assets to trade away if they feel like making more moves.

New Orleans, you have your franchise cornerstone, you have the proper front office personnel to usher in this era, the third time around might just be the charm. Let’s dance.