Putting effort into scouting second-round picks will make the New Orleans Pelicans better
This point seems so obvious, yet many teams around the league tend to disregard second-round picks. The Denver Nuggets don’t, and it’s a major reason for their success. Executive Tim Connelly knows that to compete in a small market he needs to hit on every draft pick he has.
This strategy is how the Nuggets found their franchise player Nikola Jokic. They scouted a player that no one was looking at, seeing the potential for greatness. This tactic goes beyond Nikola Jokic, this is what the Denver Nuggets do to consistently find hidden gem players.
I recently wrote that the New Orleans Pelicans should target a back-up point guard in the second round of the draft and that’s exactly what Denver did when they found Monte Morris with the 51st pick in the 2017 draft.
Hitting on second-round picks and even undrafted players continues to be part of the Nuggets recipe for success with recent players Torrey Craig, and Bol Bol also playing major roles for this team’s run.
If the New Orleans Pelicans can start finding players later in the draft, then they’ll become much deadlier because they’ll have a roster full of cheap, controllable talent for years to come. It’s one of the easiest ways to supplement the Pelican’s young core.