Hi I’m new here but wanted to ask a question: Do the pels have interest in Lauri or not? I’ve not seen anything on hoopshype about him and the pels linked. The only thing I’d want griffin to target from Utah is Kessler. I really don’t want lauri for what he’d cost

I was listening to Locked On Pelicans and heard Jake Madison make this suggestion. I thought it was an interesting suggestion. 🤔🧐

https://youtu.be/niLA9zYEjak?si=Si8_C6k_89O5iPHL

https://youtu.be/bozZ9YtIOos?si=0mAmpZUulw5nkTpS

Anyone gonna be there? I live in Vegas so if I have to, I’ll represent all 12 of us

Sac: Brandon Ingram

NOP Clint Capela and Kevin Huerter Sac 2028 and 2030 unprotected frps

Atl: Harrison Barnes and protections removed from previously owned sac pick 2026 unprotected.

Does that seem like something the Pelicans would be open to?

Trading BI to the east instead of a competitor in the west would make more sense. Now that the Sixers have PG I don't think there's any obvious fits for BI out east.

Cleveland need to do something but I don't see them moving Allen just yet, especially with the acquisition of Atkinson.

I could see Charlotte making a big move for BI. With no first in 2025 they'll try to be competitive next year. They have an expiring contract in Bertans, Grant W, as well as a lot of draft capital.

The kings have obviously shown interest in BI and will give up a lot, but there doesn't seem to be a big market for him in general.

Valančiūnas spent 3 seasons with the Pelicans

Thank you Naji! We’ll miss you and wish you the best bro!

Let’s assume we get a center in exchange for BI (big assumption, but Zeller is currently the only C on our roster, so I’d hope our FO is prioritizing that). I’m thinking:

Dejounte/CJ/Herb/Zion/[insert center here]

My personal preference would be to start Trey over CJ or Herb, but starting Trey over CJ would kill our perimeter defense (even though CJ is a minus defender, he can at least stay in front of smaller guards). And starting Trey over Herb kills our entire defense. Do you think it’s possible for us to play Trey as a small 5, or have him at the 4 and run Zion at 5? So the lineup would look like:

Dejounte/CJ/Herb/Trey/Zion

But Zion is most impactful when at the 4 position and playing a pseudo-PG role. So I’m not sure.

I think I trust Willie to figure it out with whatever the FO gives him, but there are a lot of question marks at the moment. The positive thing is, there’s a lot of talent on the roster as it stands, so we won’t have to worry about having a bad offense - it’s just about how it all fits together. I’m a little worried about our bench depth now that we lost Naji and Nance, but picking up Dejounte alleviates that a bit, and we were already an incredibly deep team to start. So just a minor gripe there.

Going out: Larry Nance, Dyson Daniels, EJ Liddell, Jonas Valanciunas, Naji Marshall

Coming in (TBA): Dejounte Murray

There will be more moves this summer. The most important potential move being, will the Pelicans resign Brandon Ingram or will they trade him, and what will they get in return if they do trade him. The other giant question is who is the starting center.

With that in mind, the Pelicans stand to have 5 new top 8 rotation guys. Massive change for a team that has been relatively stable with their roster over the last 3 years.

Should be a very interesting year.

JV and Larry Nance are now gone. Yes we could maybe trade BI for center but also teams will know we're desperate for a center and given the limited market, we'd probably have to significantly overpay in a trade. Jarrett Allen is also not getting traded.

I mean like is the plan just to start Missi and pray he turns out to be Dereck Lively 2.0 lol?