A Deeper Look At The New Orleans Pelicans Draft Lottery Strategy | The Final Piece To The Puzzle

A Deeper Look At The New Orleans Pelicans Draft Lottery Strategy | The Final Piece To The Puzzle

With the NBA draft lottery set to commence Monday, May 12th, the time is ticking for the New Orleans Pelicans. And so with everything you need to know about what’s going to happen on Monday, we going to talk about that right now in the Pelican Scoop. Cue my music. This is the Pelican Scoop with Jordan Kitchens, breaking down everything under the sun about your New Orleans Pelicans. Smash that like button, leave a comment, and subscribe to stay on top of your Pel’s content. Now, Running Point, here’s Jordan. What is good, YouTube? Welcome back to another edition of the Pelican Scoop. I am your host with the most Jordan catches. And ladies and gentlemen, I’m back. You know, it’s it’s odd for me to have a couple days off not making content cuz I don’t know, I kind of I just love it a little bit now. But at the same time, I had to do a little bit of politicking on OTB. That’s the morning show for my job. You know, I do a little bit of politic and try and, you know, show the masses about the Pelican Scoop. So, some of you guys might be coming from that and majority of you guys have been here for the long run. So, guys, we’re going to break down the draft lottery. It’s only right. The day of reckoning is here. It’s coming May 12th. Like, you’re looking at the end of the tunnel. You see the light. Now, that light could be, you know, a pick in the top three, top four potentially, right? Or that could be a train coming to hit you with a pick between six and eight. So, the Pelicans, they can’t land lower than eight, but damn, it’s between one and eight. I.e. Jackson Hayes, i.e. Dyson Daniels. But, but, but before we get into all that, we’re going to break that down right now. So, the Pelicans posted this video um narrated by Aaron Summers. Basically breaking down everything you need to know about how the draft lottery process works. So, once I play that for the class, then we’re going to sit here and have a discussion. So, the NBA draft lottery takes place Monday, May 12th in Chicago. Let’s take a look at what you can expect. The lottery is made up of the 14 teams that did not make the NBA playoffs. Each team is assigned odds for the number one pick based on the reverse order of regular season record. Teams are assigned random four-digit combinations based on those odds. From there, 14 ping pong balls are placed in a hopper. The first combination drawn is the number one pick. Only the first four picks are drawn and decided at the lottery. The Pelicans are slotted at number four pre-draft lottery with 12 and a half% odds to get the number one pick. Based on the lottery results, the Pelicans could pick anywhere from 1 to 8 when the NBA draft takes place June 25th through 26th at the Barlay Center. So, great video by the Pelicans to sit there and educate us about that because I definitely was not under the impression that the first four picks were picked at the draft lottery. Well, I was not under impression the first ping pong picked is the number one pick. Was not under impression about that at all. I’m happy they, you know, shined a light on that. So, I’m also going to shine some light on that. So, great video by the Pelicans posted narrated by Aaron Summers. But number one thing that just always catches my eye, and I gonna say just catches my eye, but just kind of makes me wake up in cold sweats at night, just sitting there like hitting one of these, just staring up at the at the ceiling fan in your room, is that if the Pelicans have such a disastrous season like this, and somehow fall out the top four. I, you know, in the fourth pick, I I really would like top three. Of course, we all like one or two, but you know, I just don’t feel like the Pelicans going to get blessed that way. You’re right. We didn’t had AD and Zion. We’d already got blessed. A lot of teams had even got a chance to get the number one pick before and we didn’t got two of them in the span of what, six, eight years. So, in that sense, I don’t think we’re going to get blessed like that no time soon. Especially with this Gail Benson, Arch Dascese, whatever looming over the city. You got Derek Carr terrorizing us. I just think we’re out of luck. Okay, we are out of luck. But that does not mean two, three, four, I’m okay. It’s when you start to go lower than that, that’s where I’m just like, damn. Because you won 21 games and you’re not gonna bring in a game changing play. But again, it’s the draft. It’s the lottery system, of course, but it’s the draft. So, some guys are going to get picked that you, you know, you thought were going to be good that turn out to not be good at all. And some guys you thought were not good at all end up to be extremely good. So, that happens all the time. So, I’m not going to sit here and just, oh man, if the Pelicans end up with Derek Queen, man, what the what the man, we trash. But that would be a good scenario if you do end up with the eighth pick. I will be fine with Derek Queen at the eighth spot. So, a lot of mock drafts and a lot of people have been penciling the Pelicans to get the fourth pick because they have the they’re the fourth team in the draft lottery odds, you know, 12.5% to get the number one pick. So, a lot of people have them pencled at the fourth spot and that’s either between getting like Trey Johnson or Ace Bailey, VJ Edgecomb, between any of those guys. Ace Bailey could be the third pick, but you know, a lot of people have concerns about Ace Bailey. Um I’m I’m under the impression that maybe necessarily if you get anything lower than five, six, seven, maybe eight, I’m okay with trading it. But top four, I just feel like you have to go and select somebody, you have to go and get your guy. You have, you know, even if it’s going to be and even even if that guy is going to necessarily fall to you, it’s not who you want it. You know, it’s not a Cooper flag or a Dylan Harper, but still, you need a guy. Okay? Forget the role players. forget that this the Pelicans need a guy. All right, you’re you’re staring at starting the season off without De Jante, without Trey, without Herb. Potentially maybe one of those guys could be there out of Trey and Herb, but Dejante, you can pencil that he’s not going to be there the start of the year. So, you’re looking at you’re looking at that in the face. You need offense. You need scores. You need guys that can sit there and get their own bucket. The same way that Trey Murphy was was able to develop his game and expand his and expand his pallet. Let’s call it what it is. Expand his palette. Add on to his dribbling his on his own scoring. Not just sitting there being a catch and shoot guy. I can get it off the dribble. I can make my own play. The Pelicans need that. And I think if you’re not going to be in the top three or you know potentially you are three, four through five, you got to find a way to try and get your hands on Trey Johnson. Man, I’m a big Trey Johnson guy. Freshman out of Texas. Almost averaged basically averaged 20 points this year. Great three-point shooter. VJ Edgecom is cool. crazy athlete, but the Pelicans need a score. I’m not gonna say necessarily a volume score, like he needs to take a lot of shots. I’m more saying the guy that when he gets the ball in his hands or when to touch his hands, he knows what to do. He has a move ready to go. He has a plan. Wouldn’t you wish Jordan Hawkins would have shown you a plan once you get the ball, not you know, whatever. Or if Jordan Hawkins could take that next step. It It’s just so many whatifs. We’re sitting there playing the whatifs game at the end of the day. So many what ifs. So what if this guy blast? what this and truthfully I hate doing that. I truthfully hate playing that game because I like to talk about what’s certain and what we know, not about making hypothetical situations and well what if Jordan Hawkins takes a year four leap or year three leap whatever year it is with Jordan Hawkins like what if he takes a step and becomes the Yukon guy you saw but then also at the same time you also have Willie Green or what if Joe Dumar’s trade Zion we don’t know so it’s so up in the air but I can promise you all the dominoes will start to fall after the draft every single answer will come come to fruition. And that’s good or bad. But regardless of the fact, whatever pick that comes on Monday night, I will do a live I’m going to do a live reaction of all that for Monday. Whatever happens, all the answers and all the dominoes will start to fall. We’re start going to we’re start going to see things start to be in motion. You know, we’re going to start to see, you know, maybe trade talks heat up. We’re going to start seeing a lot more rumors. We’re going to start seeing everything. But until then, everybody just sitting put and just waiting for the day of reckoning on the 12th. Simple as that. And there just so many possibilities of what could happen because the Pelicans could end up with a Derek Queen to pair with Eve Me, you know, go into this new era of the double big. I say new era of double bigs. I hate say the new era of double bigs because it’s really just traditional how the NBA was built on a power forward and a center. But now it’s like oh the new era of the double bigs when it’s kind of what’s been going on except for like the last what 12 years except when the Warriors got hot. Other than that you was out there with a power forward in the center. But on the other hand that doesn’t matter. Pelicans could lean into that. Joe Dumar did explain that I dropped the video on. Y’all go go back and watch my Joe Dum Mars when he was talking on the podcast. And the main takeaway from that podcast was Joe’s talking about, yeah, I think that the double bigs, traditional big men is the way to go. You know, when you look at the top teams in the NBA, they have two versatile bigs that can do a lot of different things. You watched OKC last night with Hardenstein and Cadet. So Joe Dumar does envision that’s the way he wants this Pelican team to be built in the future. So what that mean, you know, pairing Eve Mei up with a Derek Queen who can kind of space the floor a little bit, take that pressure off Zion in the front court, let him go play the three, you put Trey at the two. See, and when you start doing things like that, there’s so many questions about the lineup. And it all falls at the feet of if Willie Green, man, why why am I even still talking about Willie still being here, man? Why am I even still discussing about you all this going to have to come to play if Willie Green like man damn man what are we doing man that’s the only gripe I I still have with Joe Dumar is why are we keeping Willie man come on man if everything going to be a fresh start between you know getting Joe Dumar and Troy Weaver you’re letting go swingy getting rid of David Griffin guys get Willie out of here too man start fresh start put everybody on the same timeline cuz I’ll be damned if the Pelicans have a bad year. I can say a bad year, but Willie underachieves pretty much, you know, he’s going to underachieve and then the Pelicans going to fire him and bring in a new coach next year. Why do that? Just go ahead and just start fresh. Start. You already starting fresh. But I’m not going to sit here and rant. This this is what not this video is about. But basically, what I’m saying is all this gonna have to fall at Willy’s feet depending on who you draft and how is he gonna try to make this lineup work and is he gonna play Zion at the three? Well, then I mean Trey has to play the two. So Trey plays a two. Is CJ still on the roster? Is Herb Jones coming off the bench? What about DeJonte? Do we still don’t have a point guard? So you g have to put Zion at point guard or you gonna put experiment with CJ at the point guard again or it’s just so many questions that still got to be answered. But you’re not too far off if you land a great pick. Not only you land him, but the guy you draft is an immediate impact guy. I’m not sitting there saying you draft this kid and this guy is automatically LeBron James, you know, or the next great one. I’m not sitting there saying that. But this guy you draft has to be a day one contributor of the team. If you’re going to be a top 10, especially your top five, all right? This a we ain’t the Rockets get drafting Reed Shepard and you you riding the pine all season. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. We do not have that many assets to be sitting there and doing that. So, whoever this guy gets drafted has to be immediate impact immediately. Might even be a starter immediately because you gonna have you gonna have three guys basically be out. So, he has to come in and be immediate impact. So, make it easier on him. You Zion’s going to have to beat Zion and this guy is going to have to find his way. Going to have a lot of good summer league. It’s going to be the summer league. Summer league for the Pelicans will be box office. I think the summer league team will be pretty damn good. I forgot about Antonio Ree. Antonio Ree year two. I hopefully Jordan Hawkins is back in the summer league. Have Carlo plus this rookie. I mean, who else? Mei in the summer league. So, summer league team could potentially be good. Maybe might not play, but yeah, the summer league team should be good. So, y’all let me know down in the comments. What do you guys think about the draft lottery? If you had to pick between one and eight, you know, between pick one and eight, obviously everybody wants a number one pick, where do you realistically see the Pelicans falling? Be real. Don’t sit there and be like, "Oh man, I know we’re getting a number." To be real, between one and eight, they can’t go lower than eight, and obviously can’t go no higher than one. So, between one and eight, where do you guys think the Pelicans pick will land? We The Day of Reckoning will be on Monday. I will do a live reaction to that. Hopefully, I’m doing a good live reaction. Hopefully, I’m not sitting there live. Pause if needed. But yeah, so y’all let me know down in the comments, man. Enjoy y’all Thursday. Think so. I’m out, man. Peace.

On this episode of the Pelicans Scoop, Jordan Kitchens reacts to the Pelicans draft lottery video. While also looking at the possibilities of what pick could they land.
❗❗❗
*Like Comment and Subscribe*
Follow me on Instagram: @jordan_kitchens