New Orleans Pelicans — A Superteam?
With the Pelicans bereft of tradable assets and the potential of losing DeMarcus Cousins after this season without a significant roster improvement, swinging for the fences in the Paul George sweepstakes may be their only choice.
We just watched the Golden State Warriors complete what will go down as a historic 3-year run, with 2 titles (possibly 3 had they not blown a 3–1 lead,) and the most successful stretch of regular season basketball in NBA history.
With that, the Warriors have reached the most logical conclusion of what, ironically, LeBron James started in Miami. No, it’s not the superteam shit.
The Warriors have reached small-ball nirvana.
The Miami Heat started it when they played 4 wings around Chris Bosh. The Warriors perfected it. Small ball isn’t just about spacing the floor, nor is it just about length, and skill. It’s about all of that boiling in this kettle pot of basketball goodness, sprinkled with a bit of unselfishness, and dashed with a pinch of fun.
The copycat league already started way back in 2014–15, when the Warriors were just beginning this domination. But if there’s anything we can learn from the Cavs-Dubs III, it’s this: you can’t beat the Warriors at their own game.
David Griffin built the Cavs to fight fire with fire: they wanted to play fast, they wanted to shoot, and they wanted to score a lot of points. They came into the 2017 NBA Finals series with a 120.7 offensive rating, a historic tally entering the Finals. You’d think they’d have enough fire power to match the Warriors. They did finish the 2017 Finals with a 111.6 offensive rating, which would have been enough in any other year. But this isn’t just any other year. It’s the Warriors’ year.
So while everybody is following the Warriors’ path, grabbing perimeter-oriented players, left and right, the Pelicans are doubling down on the road less traveled by trading for DeMarcus Cousins — a burly superstar who was languishing on a so-so team just like Davis. The Pelicans are going big when everyone is trying to go small.
Looking for the anti-Warriors
This isn’t an ideal partnership: in the most ideal scenario, AD and Boogie are each surrounded by 4 long, perimeter-oriented players on different teams. And that’s why people are wary about this partnership: there isn’t enough zag in them.
While that is a very real and valid concern, there is one thing people are forgetting: Davis and Cousins aren’t stiffs in any sense of the word. They’re most effective inside, pounding the paint and crashing the glass, yes. But they also have burgeoning perimeter games: AD’s become one of the deadliest mid-range shooters — especially catch-and-shoot jumpers — and Boogie has now had 2 consecutive solid 3-point shooting seasons. They also work best on the elbows, attacking off the catch and on the bounce.
That could be the zag to the Warriors zig. And there’s evidence of this littered throughout the Warriors’ last 54 losses.
You slow the game down, play solid defense, and you pound the glass on both sides.
This was how Cleveland stole a 2–1 lead in the 2015 Finals. This was how OKC came so close to defeating a 73–9 team in 6 games and how Cleveland beat them in 7 games in the 2016 Finals.
AD and Boogie — especially a slimmed down Boogie — can be the cornerstone of the anti-Warriors. They’ll still need a massive talent upgrade, something which has presented itself in Indiana.
Paul George sweepstake
Adrian Wojnarowski dropped this bomb Sunday night:
That news suddenly made this article — a draft of which written was 5 days ago — relevant. This was always the final gamble to me, public proclamation or not. The Pelicans have to ride the Paul George gamble, whether he commits to re-sign or not. Because with the trade for Cousins, the Pelicans have locked themselves into this path. There’s no way out of this. It’s either this works, Boogie re-signs which should eventually lead to AD signing his 3rd contract as a Pelican.
Or everything burns down, Boogie bolts and AD — with 2 years left in his contract and a player option — is going to bolt. There’s no time to reset it after Boogie leaves. It’s now or never.
Which makes this Paul George situation the perfect — and, to me, the only good — gamble the Pelicans can make. They’re cap-strapped so they can’t go to the market. They were bereft of assets even before the Cousins trade. Now? The cupboard is technically empty. But they could take a page — and I can’t believe I’m saying this — out of Billy King’s playbook.
They could go ahead and offer Indiana the unprotected 2018 pick, the rights to swap 2019 first round picks and a lightly-protected 2021 pick. For salary purposes, they could trade E’twaun Moore (who’s a solid, if unspectacular player), Quincy Pondexter (who’s on an expiring contract) and Tim Frazier (another expiring contract).
Everybody knew George wasn’t staying with the Pacers beyond this upcoming season, and he was dead set on going to the Lakers (supposedly). That lowered his price tag quite a bit. But it was all backdoor talk. Making this public scares even teams that were on the fence.
Boston isn’t giving up significant assets for a rental. The Lakers aren’t offering assets to someone who will probably sign with them in the following offseason. Out of the other 27 teams, only Cleveland could potentially beat the Pels offer, both from the side of George (i.e. playing with a championship-level team) and from the side of Indiana (whether they prefer a star to build around like Love or Irving or a boatload of picks).
If Indiana accepts this hypothetical trade and the Pelicans implode, they’ll get a low 2018 pick, but they’ll get to swap picks with a team that will literally have Davis and literally nothing else (which is a low lottery pick), and then possibly get the Pelicans 2021 pick on a team without Anthony Davis.
If the Pels flourish, Indiana is left with nothing but 2 picks and one sunk cost (pick swap).
Hype-otheticals
No, there aren’t any indications the Pelicans are interested in making a deal like this for Paul George. They did have interest right around the 2017 trade deadline.
But outside of that, George’s name, after his agents’ public proclamation, has only been linked to one team: Cleveland. Don’t take this to mean it’s not possible or it’s not in the works. Nobody knew about the Boogie trade until hours before it became “official” (the trade call wasn’t done until hours later but you get the point).
But the possibility of pairing George — a bonafide and a grizzled superstar — with AD and Boogie — 2 neophyte superstars — is just too juicy not to get hyped. Jrue Holiday re-signing would suddenly become the cherry on top of a very yummy 3 layered ice cream cake.
