A Year Ago the New Orleans Pelicans Were a Completely Different Team
The New Orleans Pelicans barely resemble the team they were a year ago after a big trade, a draft miracle and getting rid of a lot of dead weight.
The New Orleans Pelicans have the best young core in the NBA, a couple of savvy veterans coming off the bench and a heap of unproven young talent, but at this time last year they were a completely different team.
Few teams have ever undergone a transformation as big as the one the New Orleans Pelicans did when they decided to change the course of the franchise after the 2018-19 season.
Mock Draft 3.0: The Pels land the best shooter in the country. light. Related Story
In 2018-19 the New Orleans Pelicans had an incredible 14 players who are no longer on the team, which is roster churn the likes of which the NBA rarely sees, especially for a team that was not trying to tank.
The 2018-19 Pelicans only won 33 games, so it is not surprising that they would make some moves, but most teams don’t have an entire team’s worth of turnover in one offseason.
David Griffin took over last summer and didn’t waste any time putting his stamp on the roster, let’s take a look how he did it.
Getting Rid of the Dead Weight
When your team wins 33 games it is obviously time to make some changes and the New Orleans Pelicans certainly weren’t afraid to do that.
Here’s a list of players who were on the 2018-19 roster who no longer play for the Pelicans:
Dairis Bertans, Ian Clark, Anthony Davis, Cheick Diallo, Tim Frazier, Andrew Harrison, Solomon Hill, Stanley Johnson, Wesley Johnson, Nikola Mirotic, Elfrid Payton, Julius Randle, Jason Smith and Christian Wood.
If you are counting that is 14, or an entire NBA roster, phew!
Related Story. Best and worst transactions of the last 3 years. light
Some were traded (Davis, Mirotic, Johnson), some walked in free agency (Randle, Stanley Johnson, Payton), were claimed off waivers (Wood, Frazier) or went to play in another country (Bertans).
However way it happened, they are gone and the New Orleans Pelicans replaced them with the likes of J.J. Redick, Derrick Favors and Nicolo Melli, solid veteran contributors that made the New Orleans Pelicans a much better team.
They also made a huge trade and had one of the best drafts of the last 20 years.