After Saturday’s blockbuster trade that sent franchise cornerstone Anthony Davis to the Lakers, the New Orleans Pelicans now have the 4th pick in the 2019 NBA Draft. What prospects stand out as reasonable targets?
It happened. It finally happened.
Anthony Davis is no longer a Pelican, with new president of basketball ops David Griffin shipping out the franchise star westward to the Los Angeles Lakers in a Saturday night trade that many saw coming but were shocked by nonetheless.
In return for the 26-year-old all-star big man, the Lakers reportedly sent Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram, Josh Hart, the No. 4 pick in the 2019 NBA Draft, and a top-8 inverse-protected first-rounder in 2021 (becomes unprotected in 2022 if it goes 9-30 in 2021), an unprotected pick swap in 2023, and an unprotected first-rounder in 2024 with the right to defer to 2025.
In a word … Damn.
There’s no quaint way to put it — that’s an absolutely massive return. Three unprotected first round picks and the rights to swap picks in two other drafts (which won’t happen unless the Lakers have a worse record than the Pelicans in those years). Griffin understood that Jeanie Buss and Rob Pelinka had to acquire a second star to put around a 34-year-old LeBron James, as the downside of missing out on a supreme talent — missing the postseason for a second consecutive season, or at the very least failing to field a true contender — was too much to ignore. Windows open and close quickly and without warning, and there is only so much time left for James to play at an elite, championship-caliber level. They had to make the deal — and Griffin had all the leverage and more, and he certainly capitalized on it.
New Orleans has started its rebuild in a serious way, and next Thursday’s draft presents the organization with another step to add talent to an already impressive group of players and assets. Griffin preferred to get the trade done in advance of the 2019 NBA Draft, as to have enough time to workout players and conduct interviews, and he did just that.
Griffin has been reportedly eyeing further moves revolving around the 4th pick, and it’s not out of the question that he opts to move the pick (and perhaps Ingram, too, based on roster construction and negative shooting from the current core). Moving back to accrue further assets would be a wise use of the value of this pick, considering that moving back a few spots in the lottery wouldn’t signal a huge loss in value. After the first three picks (and, honestly, the first pick), the talent curve is rather flat — you can still find someone in the back-half of the lottery that you could’ve picked several spots earlier, so why not get your man and another asset in the process? And, really, if no one stands out, simply trading out of that spot entirely is a legitimate option as well.
But that’s a discussion for another day. What if the Pelicans do end up keeping the pick?
With a current core of Jrue Holiday, Ball, Ingram, and Hart, New Orleans has an intriguing cast of talent — add in the first and fourth picks, with one of them inevitably being Zion Williamson, and you have yourself the makings of a strong rebuild, or “retool” as Griffin would probably prefer to call it, given his inclination to field a competitive roster.
After Williamson, Ja Morant, and RJ Barrett — the consensus top-three prospects — are off the board, the draft truly opens up. Griffin has several directions that he could go in, as he can draft for fit and need (perimeter shooting, frontcourt help at the ‘3’ or ‘5’) or he could simply go for whomever he perceives as the best available player regardless of position. With Ball and Holiday solidified in the backcourt, though, it’s hard to imagine the Pelicans selecting a lead guard (Coby White, Darius Garland) with such a high draft pick, so it’s likely that they look toward players on the wing and in the frontcourt instead.
We know Williamson will be the pick at No. 1. But what other prospect could be joining him as a rookie in the Big Easy?
Here are three prospects the New Orleans Pelicans could target with the No. 4 pick of the 2019 NBA Draft.