Fantasy Expansion Draft: Which New Orleans Pelicans Were Protected?

In the first ever FanSided Fantasy Expansion Draft, I was asked to protect three players from the New Orleans Pelicans and it ended up being costly.

FanSided recently did a site-wide fantasy expansion draft that wasn’t kind to the New Orleans Pelicans.

In this fictional scenario, we imagined the NBA was adding two new teams, the Seattle Sea Lions and Kansas City Burnt Ends.

First off, I have to say that I like both the names and the uniforms that were created for the teams, well done.

What I didn’t like was being tasked with choosing three members of the New Orleans Pelicans to protect in the draft. I immediately thought, “could it be four?”

There were two obvious choices to protect, but the third got trickier, as I had to choose between an ascending young talent who is not quite there yet, and an established veteran who currently brings more to the table.

When selecting who to protect in an expansion draft, the present has to be balanced against the future, talent must be weighed against potential, and in the case of the New Orleans Pelicans, sacrifices had to be made.

Let’s start with the easy choices.

Zion Williamson, Power Forward

This had to be the easiest choice of just about any team in the expansion draft. If every team in the NBA could build a team around one guy, they might choose Zion Williamson.

Even though he’s only played 19 games, he’s already shown enough to project that he will be a perennial All-Star at least, and an all-time great if things break right.

On top of his talent, Zion captures the imagination like few players, will put people in the seats, sell jerseys, give your brand worldwide exposure and in general, make your team relevant.

This one was easy.