New Orleans Pelicans 2020 NBA Draft: David Griffin Has No Excuses

With a new date for the 2020 NBA Draft in place the New Orleans Pelicans front office has no excuses

Big news dropped in the NBA last night with ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reporting that the NBA has pushed back the NBA Draft to November 18th. This comes after the league originally agreed to hold the 2020 Draft on October 16th. This is great news for many organizations, but terrible for fans of the New Orleans Pelicans.

In a corresponding move, the NBA is also delaying the start of their free agency period to an unknown date. The NBA is designing these plans to give fair competitive advantages to teams still playing, and grant the league more time to determine the financial outlook for 2021.

When looking at this news from the perspective of the New Orleans Pelicans, I can’t help but think on thought: “Boy, David Griffin better not screw this up!”

The New Orleans Pelicans Have A Golden Opportunity in the 2020 Draft

What I mean by saying that is the New Orleans Pelicans have the perfect opportunity to use all this extra time to their advantage. This the Pelicans opportunity to put the finishing touches on a championship-contending core and the team’s front office led by David Griffin have no excuses if they don’t.

I’m specifically talking about the 2020 Draft in this circumstance. As it stands right now, the New Orleans Pelicans won’t have an abundance of cap-space to splurge in free agency this offseason, but they do have all the assets to be a player on draft night.

The Pelicans can make a game-changing move in several ways on November 18th, the biggest would be making a trade for a superstar or top-5 pick on draft night. David Griffin and the rest of the Pelicans’ front office can begin putting those deals in place now.

This extended offseason gives David Griffin and company all the time in the world to work the phones and assessing the situations of other teams in the league. If there’s a team that feels like they’d be best served to make a trade to acquire some of the New Orleans Pelicans’ future assets, then the two sides can begin laying the foundation for a deal.

I’m thinking that using this time would be smart to get ambitious and see the New Orleans Pelicans go for it by trading for a star like Bradley Beal who fits their roster or the 2nd overall pick from the Golden State Warriors to complete a core of young stars.

Nailing this offseason doesn’t even have to involve one of those game-changing moves, the New Orleans Pelicans have the 13th pick in the lottery and an astonishing three second-round picks that can use to complete their roster. Using this extra time for scouting to find the best prospects for the team is another pleasing move the team can make.

If the Pelicans can get lucky and find a player that grows into a star-like some of the 13th picks in recent history that we covered then this offseason becomes a major win for David Griffin. Hitting on someone in the second round is a bonus.

Regardless, David Griffin received a lot of praise for making the Antony Davis deal, but now it’s time for him to do the real work needed to build a champion. If the New Orleans Pelicans don’t come out of the 2021 offseason with an impact player after all the time the team had, they’ll become no excuses for David Griffin and the front office.