My feeling is that the Pelicans are more likely to go a route similar to the Spurs, where they try to exchange AD for a more established player that can play alongside Holiday, Randle, Mirotic and try to stay in the mix to win a little over half their games.
If the Pels trade Davis and enter another prolonged rebuild, I kinda doubt they're going to remain in New Orleans for very long.
You could be right, but who? Who is going to make them better than they are now with a generational MVP player, trading him from a position of no leverage?
Wouldn't they just stay on a worse version of the treadmill they're on? Wouldn't fans see right through that? Or are the owners and GMs that out of touch?
I could have blinders on, but I see Tatum as the first league-wide golden boy we've had since Bird, or KG after the fact. I think he's incredibly marketable and as a 20 year old Tier 1 prospect, is much better than a random all star. If you had a name or package in mind, your idea would come alive to me a bit more.
I think they're going to try to trade him for a player who is already entrenched as a perennial All-Star.
I floated the notion of Bradley Beal recently.
Or what about Ben Simmons? Is it out of the question that Philly would consider that? Imagine Embiid and AD playing together with Butler getting to take on lead playmaking responsibilities.
I mentioned Ben Simmons in my post and maybe on CS before, but others definitely did and Simmons is the obvious guy. He could trump Tatum and picks, but maybe not. What if the Kings pick does end up top 5-8? What if Memphis rolls over and Clips get the 8 seed? Or JB / Hayward end up looking great?
Philly has nothing to offer beyond the Miami pick- beyond Butler, Reddick and Embiid no one who plays any minutes for them has a PER above 13.5- that's McConnell who isn't a trade chip- then it's below 11.5 for the next guy, Korkmaz a FA. Also, their picks will be in the 20-25 range barring flukes.
Personally I love Bradley Beal. But I haven't seen Beal on a Nike or a Gatorade commercial. I've seen Tatum on both, on national spots, and I don't even catch many commercials. That matters in NO.