New Orleans Pelicans: 3 uncomfortable conversations the Pels don’t want to have

New Orleans Pelicans: David Griffin’s draft picks

If you look at the history of David Griffin’s draft picks going back to Cleveland, he’s not exactly hit home runs even though he has had the number one pick twice.

The Zion Williamson pick was a no-brainer that an alien from another planet who had never seen basketball could have made. I am not giving him credit for doing the most obvious thing ever.

Going back to Cleveland, Griffin took Andrew Wiggins #1 overall in 2014, a defensible pick even though Joel Embiid was there for the taking. Embiid was a huge question mark back then, so I can’t fault Griffin for that one.

Joe Harris was a good choice for Griffin, but he then traded him away for a 2nd-round pick. Oops.

Since then it has pretty much been downhill.

Jaxson Hayes and Nickeil Alexander-Walker have done little for the Pelicans, and though they are both still young, there hasn’t been much to indicate they will be anything other than role players at best.

The book is still out on Kira Lewis Jr. who has shown flashes and could end up being a very good player.

It’s still too early to judge the Kira Lewis Jr. pick but the Jaxson Hayes pick was baffling at the time and even more now, as he doesn’t seem like the right kind of player to put around Zion and Brandon Ingram.

You could even say the same about Kira Lewis Jr. as there are guys like Saddiq Bey who fit what the Pels need much better and might have a higher ceiling than Lewis Jr., who is 160 lbs.

My answer to this question is that the draft is a crapshoot. The only pick I would skewer Griffin for is Jaxson Hayes but it’s fair to question his eye for talent at this point.