Pelicans Media 2020-21 Day

[NickMalone77]

What a difference a year makes. Huh?

This time last year, we felt the laser vision and envy from GM's all across the league after we inked Kyrie Irving. Last years difficult journey took this team through the trenches. Ended up with 27 wins and a three way tie for the fifth spot in the lotto. A few balls slide and swerved in ways that proved the nature of the NBA draft to be just that. Random. Ended up with the 7th pick and a few other pieces later in the first round. Saw the seismic shift taken by the league to take control of the Mavs which made a few targets expendable. Engineered a trade with the league and now we have one of the best point guards in the game in Ricky Rubio on our roster.



So where does that leave us for this next year ahead? This team isn't all about Ricky though. Our young foundation of Pearsall and Buddy took great strides to improve their games to the next level after getting big raises in RFA. They'll continue to be pillars of our organization (considering what we gave up to acquire them) that'll be here for a while. Ekbert took it upon himself to grow his game over the off season also and he's turned into quite the asset while on the second year of his rookie deal. These caterpillars continue to grow and our resurgence can take great strides in the year ahead to a possible playoff birth.

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There's still holes on this roster that can be looked at and addressed especially since we don't have our first round pick in this next draft. We'll take our time and hope that our core can mesh with enough time to produce more positive results in the year ahead.

Woo!

[garbageman]

Sham Smith, Bulls.com: What was the thought process behind the Rubio move? The Pelicans seemed to have plenty of pieces for a rebuild. Was there something you saw in the division or the league that made you decide to cash some of them in, or was it just a good value for a player highly regarded to be tops at his position?

[false9]

Where do you see yourselves in the division?

[Xist2Inspire]

With Rubio already being 30, do you see yourself having to make win-now moves this season or next offseason if the team looks like they're not meshing well?

[NickMalone77]

Sham Smith, Bulls.com: What was the thought process behind the Rubio move? The Pelicans seemed to have plenty of pieces for a rebuild. Was there something you saw in the division or the league that made you decide to cash some of them in, or was it just a good value for a player highly regarded to be tops at his position?

The idea really stemmed off the idea that we had our pillars of our franchise in Pearsall and Buddy. If they continued to grow as expected, they could contribute right away but we needed a stabilizing force like Rubio that could come in and help them get to that next level.

Also, we knew the ceiling of Aaron Gordon wasn’t quite what we hoped he could reach while here in New Orleans. We knew the kind of value our draft picks from this last draft had and thought we could cash in while the opportunity presented itself in the Dallas franchise change during this past offseason. That combination of things led us to acquire one of the best point guards in the game in Rubio.

[NOLa.]

Giving my best to former King James Pearsall, I hope he continues to grow. Speaking of, you were able to get Pearsall on less than a max in RFA and his skills are finally starting to develop. Is a personal foul training coming, as it seems to be his only weakness right now?

[NickMalone77]

Where do you see yourselves in the division?

I honestly think this team could contend in the Southwest again if everything meshes the way it’s supposed to. The Spurs, Grizz, and Mavs have other aspirations so that leads to us and the Rockets. The Rockets brought back most of its core and should have a really talented squad this year. Rubio and Buddy should be an exciting back court. Pearsall and Ekbert continue to develop the way they should and they’ll hit the right level of what we are expecting in the front court.

[NickMalone77]

With Rubio already being 30, do you see yourself having to make win-now moves this season or next offseason if the team looks like they're not meshing well?

Obviously not having our own pick in this next draft ahead puts pressure on us to try to improve the best we can to avoid giving away a potential lotto pick.

A win now move would probably force us to sacrifice other assets. If the right deal is out there to address other weaknesses we will take a look at it but we have our core that we are focused to developing. We aren’t going to stray away from that path.

[NickMalone77]

Giving my best to former King James Pearsall, I hope he continues to grow. Speaking of, you were able to get Pearsall on less than a max in RFA and his skills are finally starting to develop. Is a personal foul training coming, as it seems to be his only weakness right now?

We will take a look at every aspect of his game once the regular season starts. His game has really elevated once he was able to get an opportunity here in New Orleans. His friendship with Buddy and Ricky and Ekbert has also excelled and strengthend in the offseason. That continuity is really important to our club. Little by little, we expect James to really rise with this club and be able to deliver big time when he fully matures into his game.