The Pelicans may have put themselves in position to be competitive on their free agent market, but GM Dell Demps hasn’t indicated if that’s the strategy he plans to pursue, writes Scott Kushner for The Advocate. New Orleans earned the sixth seed and swept its way into the conference semifinals, giving the team a reputation that it didn’t have last year when P.J. Tucker passed on an offer and signed with the Rockets for $3MM less.
Demps will have to decide whether to chase free agents or devote his resources to re-signing DeMarcus Cousins and Rajon Rondo. Backup point guard Ian Clark will also be seeking a raise from the minimum salary he agreed to last summer. Kushner notes that when the Pelicans last made the playoffs, Demps opted to keep the core of the team together.
There’s more from the Southwest Division:
- The Grizzlies need to guess right with this year’s No. 4 pick to help make up for past draft mistakes, claims Peter Edmiston of the Commercial Appeal. Memphis has just two of its first-rounders still on the roster, Mike Conley from 2007 and Jarell Martin from 2015. The Grizzlies have helped themselves by getting players such as Dillon Brooks, Ivan Rabb, Andrew Harrison, Deyonta Davis and Wayne Selden in the second round, but they need a first-round star to help build their future.
- After falling a game short of the NBA Finals, the Rockets are confident they can land a top free agent this summer, relays Stefano Fusaro of ESPN. Houston has its own concerns with Chris Paul, Clint Capela, Trevor Ariza and Luc Mbah a Moute all headed for free agency, but owner Tilman Fertita has expressed a willingness to pay the luxury tax to compete for a title. “With our winning and the stories around the league about our locker room, our players and our coaches, we are going to have our pick of plenty of free agents out there,” said GM Daryl Morey.
- The Mavericks‘ front office scandal shouldn’t affect the team’s pursuit of free agents, writes Matt Mosley of The Dallas Morning News. A bigger factor will be the lack of competitiveness, he adds, as top free agents don’t view the Mavs as a team that can win soon. Mosley expects the organization to make a play for Cousins and Julius Randle, but states that neither addresses the need for outside shooting.
Pels were a decent team this past season, but they are maxed out. If they bring back the same cast, they will be life and death to make the playoffs.
Are they though? They weren’t even healthy this year and still got the #6 seed. If Boogie comes back healthy, don’t they deserve to see how far a Cousins/Davis tandem can go?
Cousins would be stupid to re-sign with those trash Pelicans.
I wouldn’t say the Pels are trash, considering they swept the first round against the three seed, then lost to the Warriors in the second round. And they did that without their second best player.
Come on Dionis, how can you say that, this year they were very entertaining, & NOLA is a great city with great people & food, culture, music… I agree I think is hard to have DMC & AD together, because both have their wings a bit clipped playing together, so I think is best for DMC to go, though I think we have seen the best of him, unfortunately, he deserved MVP honors, what a historic season, man. But again in a team with those 2 or even only AD, I will not ever think they were trash, they did a very respectable series against Golden State, so it was no shame to lose against them… so they are not trash.
NOLA is a dirty town with great food. I wouldn’t want to live there
Have you ever even been there? If you’d actually travel there you’d see that you’re absolutely right and it sucks.
Ayton, Bagley, Jackson Jr, Porter jr, Bamba, Doncic, Carter jr, Mikal Bridges, Kevin Knox, Trae Young, SGA, Miles Bridges, Lonnie Walker, Troy Brown, Robert Williams, Colin Sexton is how I can see it going the first 16 picks, although obviously trades will likely be involved and that could easily move certain guys, like Sexton up