#SLOE: People's Basketball Sim League

Pels Media Day

I've been sitting here, for the last few hours at least, trying to summon the creative energy to write something on this years current installment for the New Orleans Pelicans. Ended the year with 50 wins in the regular season and a quick exit in the first round to an even better San Antonio Spurs team. Once we acquired Nikola Jokic last year, we knew how special a talent he was and keeping that talent long term was a top priority of ours going into the off season. So that idle time between the playoff exit and the draft was basically our guide to wipe that erase board clean and navigate the ocean in hopes of finding prosperity island.

Enough platitudes and analogies.... Okay, maybe some more because they're fun to type... Brass Tax... We didn't actually have to pay anything and fielded a successful team. We scoped the trade blocks and found our friends in DC were looking for a shooting guard. Aaron Pastor has had success in the league but entering the final year of his contract, he was expendable. Traded him and saved 6-7 mil in cap space for the #14 pick and points considerations. Drafted a 7'5 "PF" with a lot of interesting skills that could round out to rotational big one day but with the idea of bringing back Jokic to go with McNary, he wasn't going to find and room to crack this rotation long term. The Lakers awoke from their 7 year slumber to be active on the trade markets in an attempt to rebuild and tank long term. That's where the opportunity arose to give them a call and work out a deal to acquire premier offensive force, Damion Williams. Damion will definitely help to spread the floor and make the defense chase after him to prevent teams from clogging the paint on Jokic and McNary. Williams was an offensive force for us during the preseason and we expect more of the same when the games start to count in the regular season.

This is very much a tri-force Cerberus unit. Which would be an interesting logo design for anyone adept with Photoshop if they wanted to create it.

Anyways, we were certainly glad Jokic wanted to commit to us long term and signed right away in FA. The one issue with that is that it ate up a majority of our cap leaving us with fairly little space to rebuild the rest of the roster. We had Tristan Bosworth last year on a team friendly deal and thought with his skill decline over the last few years, it made little sense to retain him at 7 mil when he accepted a vet minimum deal because he'd be a starter on this team given the remaining point guard options on the team currently. Granted, we tried like hell to recruit and sign some of the top PG talent on the market when FA started, Jokic signing first pretty much took that opportunity away. Also most of those guys on the market went back to their teams on much larger deals.

Darnell Mitchell will get the chance to start this year on the wing next to Damion Williams. Mitchell is entering the final year of his rookie deal and has the speed and skill to be an option for us on offense if need be. We're certainly not expecting him to be an offensive option like we would with Jokic or McNary but it's nice to have a competent option on the wing that won't have a high usage rate.

So, with our veteran core mostly in place, we took advantage of the Waiver Claim round and snagged some young solid depth pieces that will be able to mix it up and hopefully not lose the leads that this team could put together. Names like Lenard Kipp, Daniel Bowens, and Kevin Matta will all fill important bench roles for us in the season ahead. This team is deep and talented enough that we feel like we could definitely battle among the likes of the rest of the conference and maybe even pose a challenge to the Nuggets and Spurs if we're able to acquire that missing PG piece we've been searching for the last few seasons.

Here's a music video that gets me pumped for the season ahead. I hope this helps!

Sham Smith, Bulls.com: The Pelicans haven't been able to field a real floor general at PG in a while. How does the team adapt its strategy when that's the case?

You made some really nice moves on waivers. With all of them on vet mins and given your cap situation, do you think you'll be able to retain them or do you fully expect them to be one year rentals?

garbageman wrote: Sun Mar 17, 2019 9:51 pm Sham Smith, Bulls.com: The Pelicans haven't been able to field a real floor general at PG in a while. How does the team adapt its strategy when that's the case?

I agree with the sentiments expressed by Chad from the Charlotte Presser that I think the quality of point guards over the last few years has been disappearing and evaporating quickly in terms that you can maybe count 10 or less teams in the league have a quality point guard leading the floor for their teams. At least in terms of perception. Either you have a quality point guard or you don’t.

So how to combat that? I think you need another guy in that lineup that has exceptional passing skills. One that maybe is too big to play the position or too slow. We are blessed that Jokic has exceptional passing skills and can space the floor too. Bosworth, while he’s lost a step or two a long the way, still has the sight and vision to see the floor and find the open shooter or two. He’s still expected to be the lead point guard for this team this year but if there’s an option to explore and find a better point guard available, we will look into that idea also.

kucoach7 wrote: Mon Mar 18, 2019 8:00 am You made some really nice moves on waivers. With all of them on vet mins and given your cap situation, do you think you'll be able to retain them or do you fully expect them to be one year rentals?

Hopefully they’ll continue to grow with the opportunity they’ve got to see real minutes off the bench. They worked hard over the offseason to improve and we are hoping that transition with their young age will continue to net positive results for us this year.

If the deal is right, of course we will be looking to retain them. If not, I’m sure they’ll be able to help other teams throughout the journey of their careers.

With key players such as Damion McNary and Nikola Jokic getting older, how close do you feel you are from making a Finals appearance? Also, will the team be accepting McNary's Team option for next season?

Will Jokic Be your Point Center?

Chet Youbetcha, Dimmadome News,

With both Mcnary and Williams contracts expiring within the next couple of years. Do you see them both on your team long term?

You relied heavily on the waiver wire to fill out your roster - does it concern you that you're relying heavily on players other teams passed on during free agency?

What’s the peak of this team?

What’s a worst case scenario?

digiskunk wrote: Mon Mar 18, 2019 9:24 am With key players such as Damion McNary and Nikola Jokic getting older, how close do you feel you are from making a Finals appearance? Also, will the team be accepting McNary's Team option for next season?

Obviously this team will go as far as the Pelican Cerberus wants to take the team. I think that even with the age factored into the team, this team can still be very successful. And on McNary, he’s been a multi time All Star and has given this organization everything possible. We’d love to bring him back long term but will also have to do what’s best for the organization long term.

Eazy P wrote: Mon Mar 18, 2019 10:03 am Will Jokic Be your Point Center?

Hopefully he won’t have to play two positions over the course of the season but you never know. He would definitely be taller than any other PG in the game but probably also the slowest.

AngryBanana wrote: Mon Mar 18, 2019 11:52 am Chet Youbetcha, Dimmadome News,

With both Mcnary and Williams contracts expiring within the next couple of years. Do you see them both on your team long term?

I do think that can be a scenario. We didn’t just acquire Williams to trade him mid season. He’s as important to our team as Jokic and McNary. Will see what the future holds. Anything is possible.

WigNosy wrote: Mon Mar 18, 2019 12:33 pm You relied heavily on the waiver wire to fill out your roster - does it concern you that you're relying heavily on players other teams passed on during free agency?

I think of it as a way that players that took the time to improve over the offseason and maybe saw an opportunity to get minutes where they might not have. I think that matters to young guys looking to make a good impression.

TheSyndicate wrote: Mon Mar 18, 2019 12:34 pm What’s the peak of this team?

What’s a worst case scenario?

Peak? 60 wins and a Title.

Worst case? Everybody gets hurt and we are a lotto team.