For those people hard on Ainge...

[slightly biased bias fan]

I have started to take notice of Pelicans because I can see Davis making a leap over Lebron this season and have tracked back the Pelicans moves since attaining Davis and they were ridiculous lol.

When they traded Chris Paul they got back crap and the only decent player, Eric Gordon has been plagued with injuries his entire career and the 2012 pick from Clippers was then used on AUSTIN RIVERS. Dell Demps then decides he wants more injury goodness by trading away their pick which ends up being Noel for Jrue Holiday, they also could have had their choice of Giannis, McLemore ect. included in Holiday trade is their 2014 pick which ends up being Elfrid Payton or a choice of LaVine, Saric, McDermott ect. They also trade away Robin Lopez for essentially nothing and replaced him with Asik, whom is a lesser, again more injury prone player and from the goodness of GM Demps' heart gives them the Pels 2015 pick too which ends up being Dekker.

Can you imagine their line up if they had a semi competent GM?

Noel
Davis
Dekker
FA
Peyton
 
Or

Davis
Anderson
Antetokounmpo
Hunter
Peyton

All other than the fillers, still on rookie scale contracts

P.S I truely believe that Dell Demps has an injury fetish lol

[manl_lui]

to be fair, they did get the #1 pick and got anthony davis =P, but other than that, Danny's a good GM

[Denis998]

I think they drafted noel and traded him.

[Celtics4ever]

Big difference between being a lucky GM who gets a generational talent and good GM.   NO was definitely the former.

[Moranis]

I think they drafted noel and traded him.

the trade was made on draft day before the draft, but couldn't be completed until after the draft.  Noel was thus essentially drafted by Philly.

[Evantime34]

The Noel trade looks really bad now, but you have to give it some context.
1. At the time Jrue Holliday was healthy/believed to eventually become healthy. At 22 Jrue Holliday was an all-star. Betting on a 22 year old all star isn't a bad idea even though it looked like one in retrospect.
2. The New Orleans owner at the time wanted the team to be set up to win right away so that he could sell the team. It's hard to be a good GM when the owner is pushing you into the win now corner.

As to people trashing Danny, there is no gm I would rather have in the NBA.

[TheTruthFot18]

Having Noel over Holiday (plus or minus players related to other picks) would make them better but not better than SA, LAC, GS, OKC, or Houston.

Also, at the time Noel was in the same situation as Embiid. Both has injuries and surgery that had them missing some or all of their rookie season. I think NO saw this as a time to jump start the rebuild by getting Holiday, not prolong it by betting on an injured rookie big man to make a come back a year later. To be fair, the Sixers tried their luck again with Embiid and that clearly didn't work.

I like that Philly got the 2014 1st on top of Noel.

[Smartacus]

The Noel trade looks really bad now, but you have to give it some context.
1. At the time Jrue Holliday was healthy/believed to eventually become healthy. At 22 Jrue Holliday was an all-star. Betting on a 22 year old all star isn't a bad idea even though it looked like one in retrospect.
2. The New Orleans owner at the time wanted the team to be set up to win right away so that he could sell the team. It's hard to be a good GM when the owner is pushing you into the win now corner.

As to people trashing Danny, there is no gm I would rather have in the NBA.

Philly had to pay NO out a massive fine after it was found that they knew more about his impending season ending injury than they let on.

[PhoSita]

I didn't like the Holiday trade simply because I think it represented a desperation to become relevant ASAP that I think was unwise considering they already had Davis on board.

If you've got a guy like Anthony Davis, you're guaranteed to be relevant to your viewers and NBA fans at large.  I understand the pressure to build a good team so that guy will stick around and not immediately start turning his eyes elsewhere.  Still, it seems to me if you've got the best build-around asset in the league, you might as well just take it slow and build up a young group of players that complements the skillset of your young superstar.

Worry about making the finishing touches via trade or free agency later.  Just help your superstar develop and figure out what your roster makeup needs to be in order to help him reach his potential.

More than the Holiday trade I really question the decision to go after and invest long term in Omer Asik, plus the decision to hold onto Tyreke Evans and Ryan Anderson, not to mention Eric Gordon.

Jrue Holiday at least makes sense, in theory, playing alongside Davis.  The rest of that team is a jumbled mess.

[Evantime34]

I didn't like the Holiday trade simply because I think it represented a desperation to become relevant ASAP that I think was unwise considering they already had Davis on board.

If you've got a guy like Anthony Davis, you're guaranteed to be relevant to your viewers and NBA fans at large.  I understand the pressure to build a good team so that guy will stick around and not immediately start turning his eyes elsewhere.  Still, it seems to me if you've got the best build-around asset in the league, you might as well just take it slow and build up a young group of players that complements the skillset of your young superstar.

Worry about making the finishing touches via trade or free agency later.  Just help your superstar develop and figure out what your roster makeup needs to be in order to help him reach his potential.

More than the Holiday trade I really question the decision to go after and invest long term in Omer Asik, plus the decision to hold onto Tyreke Evans and Ryan Anderson, not to mention Eric Gordon.

Jrue Holiday at least makes sense, in theory, playing alongside Davis.  The rest of that team is a jumbled mess.

Completely agree, but when the Gm's boss (the owner) says to the gm, we need to make a move to be competitive now. There isn't much that can be done.

[PhoSita]

I remember thinking on draft night, when it was announced the Pelicans were selecting Nerlens Noel, MAN THEY'RE GONNA BLOCK ALL THE SHOTS.

I'm disappointed we never got to see that.

[BitterJim]

I think they drafted noel and traded him.

the trade was made on draft day before the draft, but couldn't be completed until after the draft.  Noel was thus essentially drafted by Philly.

Would Philly have done the deal if Noel hadn't dropped to #6, though?

[RAAAAAAAANDY]

I think they drafted noel and traded him.

the trade was made on draft day before the draft, but couldn't be completed until after the draft.  Noel was thus essentially drafted by Philly.

Would Philly have done the deal if Noel hadn't dropped to #6, though?

There were rumors that it was contingent on Noel, Oladipo or Bennet being available.