Valančiūnas spent 3 seasons with the Pelicans

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

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?

PG: Dejounte Murray SG: Herb SF: Trey PF: Zion C: Insert an Athletic, rim protecting big that we acquire in a BI trade (Please Jarrett Allen)

Have CJ come off the bench to lead the second unit, along with Jordan Hawkins and the rest of the second line.

Feel like this isn’t going to happen, but it’s totally possible and our best bet at having a contender. I’m curious what the rest of y’all think.

Seeing that group of guys on twitter really going overboard on insisting the Pelicans should trade BI is giving me pause. They seem like genuinely nice guys and everyone publicizing all their basketball takes is going to get stuff wrong occasionally. But they are ALWAYS wrong. They first caught my eye during the summer of 2015 when all the die hard Pelican fans wanted Tom Thibodeau as our next head coach. Shamit and the rest of the Bourbon Street Shots crew insisted Alvin Gentry was the smart choice the entire search. Since then they have been literally been wrong about everything relating to the Pelicans. They supported every single brain dead decision Dell Demps made for years. Shamit was so wrong so often that there was actually a twitter account (that him and Mason got suspended) that logged all their terrible Pelican takes. Is BI a great fit with Zion? Not really and maybe he never reaches his full potential with us. I just know that if those guys are going this hard for a trade then maybe we shouldnt just give him away to the Kings, Magic, or Sixers.

https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/m/murrade01/gamelog/2024#447-470-sum:pgl_basic

Murray Stats:

37.6 Minutes | 24 Games

24.8-5.9-9.1 | 1.8-0.3 | 3.2 TOV

44.7%- 35.8% (9 Attm.)- 74.4%

Game Score: 20.0

+/-: 0.3

In comparison to CJ McCollum

32.7 Minutes | 62 Games

20.0-4.3-4.6 | 0.9-0.6 | 1.7 TOV

45.9%-42.9% (8.4 Attm.)- 82.7%

Game Score: 15.3

+/-: 3.0

What this means:

Despite Murray’s shift to a SG in Atlanta, he still has proven to be an elite facilitator in Trae Young’s absence, as he had to shift to the PG position. His stats indicate versatile scoring albeit with average efficiency compared to McCollum. Murray is a worse floor spacer than CJ, but a better distributor. This gap in shooting ability could be adjusted for with TMIII moving into the starting line-up instead of BI. McCollum has proven to be a below average defender in New Orleans, and seems to be attacked by larger guards. Murray’s defense regressed in Atalanta, this could be due to the culture and vast offensive responsibilities dumped on him. Still in his span as the starting PG, he averaged 1.8 steals showing his on-ball point of attack defensive skills. He is a better, bigger and more versatile defender than McCollum and with large wings like TMIII and Herb Jones, they can overwhelm teams guards on the perimeter.

With Free Agency starting at 5pm CT today, I was wondering what you guys envisioned our free agency to look like. I expect us to lose both Naji and possibly Jonas as soon as today or this week. Even after the Dejounte trade, our team is incomplete. The glaring need as of right now (if BI doesn’t get traded) are bigs. I hope we stay somewhat agressive because Missi is our only Center. As much as it would be exciting to watch Willie give a rookie minutes, it’s not a chance I would take as Missi is still very raw. I still think there’s a chance we could sign Jonas but if not I would love a guy like Goga Bitadze from the Magic. We also (reportedly) have interest in James Wiseman. If a BI trade is still on the table then Centers that we could attain via trade are a Brook Lopez, Walker Kessler, Nick Richards, Robert Williams (I wouldn’t take the health risk). So any ideas of what you would like to be done in the coming day(s) and weeks?

Hopefully Willie is as well. PRAYING he isn't included in a trade. I have high hopes for the kid.

After this big trade, how do you think Jordan Hawkin's role will evolve?

Will he have a bigger role with Dyson out? Or even smaller role with DJ Murray and CJ as 1 and 2?

I would like to see more of him but I don't know what to expect!