How making the playoffs affects the Pelicans’ draft

The New Orleans Pelicans completed their domination of the city of Los Angeles last night, beating the Clippers on the road to claim the 8th seed in the NBA playoffs.

The Pels are one the great underdog stories of the season, as they lost Zion Williamson, started off 1-12 and things couldn’t have looked much worse.

But Willie Green got his young team to buy-in on the defensive end, and after the trade for CJ McCollum, the Pels battled their way into the play-in tournament and now the playoffs.

I thought Willie Green deserved some votes for Coach of the Year for keeping this team together, focused and confident through an up and down season that featured a lot of injuries.

It was a sweet victory that will send Brandon Ingram to the playoffs for the first time in his career, and is a great step forward for a franchise that should be able to compete for an even higher seed next season when they are back to full strength.

On top of the playoff berth, the Pelicans will likely receive the Lakers’ top-10 draft pick to add even more talent to their roster, but the win also changed their own pick in the 2022 NBA Draft.

Pelicans draft pick goes to Charlotte instead of Portland

Trail Blazers’ fans were cheering hard for the Clippers last night, as they would have gotten to keep the Pelicans pick if it fell in the 5-14 range.

Now that the Pelicans have made the playoffs, those protections are removed, which means the Pelicans will have to convey the pick they owe to Charlotte in the Devonte’ Graham trade instead.

Portland will get Milwaukee’s 2025 pick from the Pelicans, so Portland’s dream of having two lottery picks and using one of them to trade for an upgrade (like Jerami Grant) might be dashed.

The interesting thing is that the Pelicans will very likely end up giving a higher draft pick for Devonte’ Graham (who barely played last night and has been in an extended slump) than they will for CJ McCollum, who has played like an All-NBA talent since coming to New Orleans.

So the dream scenario of New Orleans getting both the Lakers and their own pick in 2022 is not going to happen, but the Pelicans and fans in New Orleans will gladly trade a small chance at a pick for a shot at the playoffs.