With the New Orleans Pelicans 2022-23 NBA season over, the next exciting thing we have to look forward to is the draft. That makes now the perfect time to look at what assets we will have at our disposal for the summer festivities. On top of that, we’ll also take a look at what picks we have right now for the 2024 and 2025 drafts.
Despite the deadline deal that brought Josh Richardson to the team (and the one from 2021-22 that gifted us with CJ McCollum), we still have plenty of picks courtesy of the Anthony Davis and Jrue Holiday deals we made a few seasons back.
Here are what picks we have in this upcoming draft (2023 draft).
-a 2023 first-round pick swap with the Los Angeles Lakers (we take the higher pick)
-our own 2023 second-round pick (if it finishes in the top-45 – if it doesn’t, it goes to the Atlanta Hawks)
-the Golden State Warriors’ 2023 second-round pick
-the Charlotte Hornets’ 2023 second-round pick
Here are what picks we have in next year’s draft (2024 draft).
-the Los Angeles Lakers’ 2024 first-round pick (with an option to pick their 2025 first instead)
-a 2024 first-round pick swap with the Milwaukee Bucks (we take the higher pick)
-the Charlotte Hornets’ 2024 second-round pick
-a 2024 second-round pick swap with the Chicago Bulls (we take the lower pick)
Here are what picks we have in the draft the year after that (2025 draft).
-the Los Angeles Lakers’ 2025 first-round pick (if we decide not to take their 2024 pick)
-the Milwaukee Bucks’ 2025 first-round pick
For those keeping score at home, that is four first-round picks and (potentially) five second-round picks in the next three drafts. That says nothing about all the young talent we already have in-house (guys like Zion Williamson, Brandon Ingram, Trey Murphy III, Herbert Jones, and Dyson Daniels, among others).
So many people want to be pessimistic about this team’s future outlook because of all the injuries we had this year and the fact we missed the playoffs. But the reality is that this team still has a bounty of young talent and a cavalcade of picks over the next couple of years to add to it.
It’s safe to say that the future is bright in New Orleans.