The Pelicans’ executive vice president of basketball operations David Griffin was able to land Euro star Nicolo Melli by selling him on the team’s system and through a connection with Melli’s agent, Griffin told Jeff Duncan of The Athletic in a Q&A session. Melli joined New Orleans on a two-year, $8MM contract.
“It’s not like anybody discovered Melli. Everybody knew Melli. What was interesting is we were able to create a situation that attracted Melli. He had other opportunities to come to the NBA. He’s a player that, because he’s an elite defensive rebounder and floor spacer — I think he’s the leading rebounder in Europe since 2015 and he shoots 42 percent from 3 — that type of player is attractive to the NBA. What I think was significant for us was our situation spoke to him to because he saw his fit within Alvin Gentry’s system, and he’s represented by Sam Goldfeder of Excel Sports Management and Jeff Schwartz, whom I was really close to.”
We have more on the Pelicans:
- Griffin received trade inquiries regarding the three rotation players he received from the Lakers in the Anthony Davis blockbuster but didn’t get close to moving Lonzo Ball, Josh Hart or Brandon Ingram, Griffin indicated in the same story. “There was interest but nothing that really spoke to us to any degree. … We felt really fortunate that we were able to land the players we did, and it became really evident that we were fortunate because of the interest in them that was shown by several other teams basically immediately after the deal was announced. It was fascinating to go through the experience, but we didn’t acquire them to move them, so nothing was even close.”
- Pelicans guard J.J. Redick will not participate in Team USA’s training camp for the FIBA World Cup, Shams Charania of The Athletic tweets. Unlike some players on the original 20-man roster who pulled out to concentrate on the next NBA season, Redick declined to be added to the roster due to family reasons as he transitions to a new city. Redick joined the Pelicans on a two-year, $26.5MM contract.
- Forward Darius Miller‘s contract has an early July trigger date next summer, Bobby Marks of ESPN tweets. Miller will make $7.25MM in guaranteed money next season and is due $7MM in 2020/21 in the non-guaranteed portion of his contract. Miller was officially signed over the weekend.
But Ball ingram and hart are bums according to everyone, now that they’re out of LA they’re suddenly budding stars SMH
It’s the GM for the team they play for, what is he supposed to say?
They’re still bums. They were offered pennies-on-the-dollar decided not to go for it.
Taking a quick look at the Pelicans rotation:
Lead Guard: Ball, Frank Jackson
2 guard: Holliday, Reddick, Hart, Alexander-Walker
Wings: Ingram, Moore, Miller, Cheatham
4&5’s: Zion, Favors, Okafor, Melli, Hayes
They have 8 very solid rotation players, plus a little depth beyond that. For a complete rebuild it’s definitely a really good start..
I imagine the starting 5 will probably be something like Ball, Holliday, Ingram, Zion, and Favors..Then, they’ll have Reddick, Hart, Moore, Melli, and either Okafor or Hayes..
They could certainly use some better wing depth, but Alexander-Walker could very well he a versatile 2/3, and surprise steal from this past draft..They’ll be an interesting group to follow, and obviously, it’ll be fun to see what kind of role Zion carves out for hisself.,
Redick would also have had to explain to FIBA World Cup participants from around the world that he plays for a team with the ridiculous name of “Pelicans”.
Pelicans will surprise. They would make playoffs in the east.