EMERGENCY POD: BRYSON GRAHAM TO THE HAWKS

EMERGENCY POD: BRYSON GRAHAM TO THE HAWKS

welcome to In the Know uh I am Schmidt joined by Jeremy and Mason we are here to talk about the latest breaking news regarding the Pelicans so tune in the New Orleans Pelicans William penetration so tough going to the goal oh no oh no I started it again got a little crappy on the intro so nice we did it twice guys almost almost um caught myself there welcome gentlemen good afternoon how’s it going Mason congratulations again um how’s how’s the baby doing good good yeah um we survived our first weekend with two in the household we sent we sent Sophie uh to Anna’s parents last weekend and so we uh we were we didn’t know if we’d make it but uh but we did um and so but but he’s he’s he’s doing great um so Oh it seems like baby the baby has taken the power away from Mason the the Cox internet bugaboo is up in Detroit somehow somehow I don’t even know if he has [ __ ] whatever he has doubt it’s raining in New Orleans that’s why the internet is out um in Detroit that’s how things work but uh the baby is the easy way you can’t you going to have one child and one internet you need to get a second child you got to find more internet connections welcome to in the technical difficulties um we are just going to kind of move forward here while Jason comes back the Pelicans um are in the news once again uh Sham Shirania reporting that Bryson Graham has been hired as a senior vice president under Anzi Salai in Atlanta um you know Atlanta’s making another hire in Peter Denwy uh similar vice president position i think he will be strategy and analytics where Bryson I think is more operations um but breaking breaking news uh Jeremy quick and immediate thoughts uh since this is an emergency pod I don’t expect us to have some fully formed ones i do have a lot of opinions which I hope you guys ask me about at some point so I don’t ramble and and volunteer them um but yeah quick thoughts oh we are back with Okay we got We’re back we’re back we’re back but we are just getting kicked off on uh I was just getting Jeremy’s thoughts on on this news so the gut reaction initial reaction initial reaction is um congratulations first and foremost and when Troy We got got the um GM job kind of figured this was going to be down the pike sooner rather than later and today is the day so congratulations um on becoming the senior vice president of basketball I think is his is that his title um yeah um at for the Atlanta Hawks salute uh to slight correction Troy did not get the GM job in New Orleans he also got the senior so you’re vice vers so there you go anyways yeah I mean that’s good good for him obviously especially as someone who you know Sham’s tweeted it that um started as an intern New Orleans like you you the the Spolstra uh you know story around starting from getting into you know the Bball op side of things however you can um and then working your way up and so I think it’s a you know any anytime that happens it’s it’s really really good to see so um best of luck to him yeah I you know Bryson um I think has made a really big impact on the Pelicans organization uh via the draft he’s really wellliked by all levels of the organization um I think you know someone who survived multiple ownership changes because he got his start I think when the league owned the the team and he went through that the sale of the team he was under demps at that time um you know Tom Benson passed away Gail Benson became owner uh Dell Dempse uh transitioned to David Griffin David Griffin transitioned to Joe Dumars and throughout all of that um and even there was a brief Danny Ferry stint right um throughout all of that uh Bryson not only maintained his job but he continued to rise up the ranks and I think people are probably going to underlook how difficult that is and and you know so many times when new management or new ownership comes in the first thing they do is they get rid of people and they bring in their own and so especially if you’re like you know some random nobody on a lower level or whatnot like they don’t know you they’re going to bring in a guy that they like right so I think first and foremost it speaks to who Bryson is and what he’s capable of that he not only survived all of that but um made it all the way to number two behind Griff and I think there was legitimate conversations of like if he would take over once Griff was gone or um you know there was a couple articles written in the Athletic and and other news organizations in the past that he’s probably one to watch as a future GM uh or a future like lead decision maker somewhere and um once Joe Dumar was hired there was a bit of a question about like what’s the hierarchy look like and that question got a little muddied once Troy Beaver was brought in as a senior vice president and being like what what does the structure look like you know Bryson is the GM he was the number two and then there’s this handpicked guy that’s been brought in by Joe um and you know all of the stuff coming out the organization at that time indicated that Weaver would be the de facto number two um and so this served as an effective demotion for Bryson even though it wasn’t one in title or one in pay right you know your voice is diminished someone who’s spent all this time working up to this position and feels like they’ve earned it may feel like okay I’m not being valued here as as as much as I should be or could be and so perhaps I’ll go start looking for for situations or go to an organization where maintain that level of decision making power and that’s what’s transpiring here um I don’t think there is any like nastiness uh between either party you know i think Joe very like to my understanding Joe uh and in ownership like they were like you know Bryson’s you gota you got to keep Bryson around um but Joe in this early going to my knowledge has been very very encouraging of folks if they are getting a promotion opportunity take it he’s not going to block you he’s not going to hold you back he is here to support your growth and Bryson I think has also earned that um you know like okay cool like you’re gonna go be the number two under shout out Anzie uh two lane pro basketball negotiation judge uh alumni for well so shout out shout out to two lane law um and uh you know now now maybe we’ll be a little in the know about the Hawks there’s two guys over there that um uh but no anzi is a great Earth in the I’m I’m happy for him because it was rumored that the Hawks might be looking to hire someone above him uh you know in Bob Myers or Messiah and it seems like no he’s the top guy and he’s bringing in Bryson two very very good people so happy for him happy Bryson gets reunited with uh Larry and Dyson I think I think but I think yeah I I think I think you So what we should probably discuss is like what does this kind of mean for the Pelicans moving forward right like one thing that we’ve already kind of touched on is okay this by default means more power is going to be concentrated with Joe and and and and Troy so how do you guys feel about that heading into the draft knowing that you know draft is been a space that Bryson’s historically had a ton of impact on we talked about it in a couple podcasts ago um couple episodes ago that Troy for all his warts in Detroit does have a pretty decent track record when it comes to drafties like the majority of the roster today was constructed by Troy outside the Tobias signing and the the Hardaway trade um so the the bones of the Detroit team are Troy Rever’s guys so and the draft being the Joe Dumar’s blind spot you know it kind of coincides kind of you know meshes together when it comes to those two so I’m not worried in that aspect for the hierarchy yeah my thoughts are as long as these guys listen to smart people they’ll know i have no concerns right because I think once you get to like the actual work that goes into preparing for for the draft and and finding the the you know the guys that you should be targeting versus those you shouldn’t and making the case for those guys like that’s not that’s not happening at the at the Troy reliever Joe Dumar’s level they’ve got to listen to all the arguments and and make the best selection based on the information that’s available to them and as long as they’re again actively listening to that information and making uh you know smart decisions and not you know holding internal biases uh and letting that cloud judgment then then I’m fine with it so um so that but I I I guess I’m uh cautiously optimistic that that is going to be the case here can I can I offer a a question to Mason now the one of the things that was talked about for Troy is that he’s pretty hands-on in his draft expertise so I know you’re saying about listening to smart people but if he believes that what he his his his um thought process on the draft go do you think he’s going to ignore those people or would that worry you um it would worry me um I think if you the the kind of mentality around I’m the smartest person in the room so my my decision matters matters more my my opinion matters more i think that his vote counts for more than any other individual person but if there’s a if there’s a scenario where he’s you know he’s at odds with the rest of with the rest of the uh you know the the ops team I’m I I I can’t pretend to know how that’s going to go right so um so I guess we’ll we’ll have to see yeah I I think Jeremy brings up a good point like one thing that has come across in my um background factf finding on on Troy is he absolutely wants to be the guy that gets in the weeds with the draft and and do a lot of the heavy lifting himself like that is something he the draft is something that like he loves that is something he is very very passionate about um and so you know early on in the first couple of weeks of Joe Dumar’s hire the first thing that they did was they fired most of the scouts that the Pelicans already had and so um you know Gar Foreman Chico um and uh Averbuk and Todd Quinter those were guys um responsible for scouting a lot of the amateurs um both on the NCAA side and you know I think there’s some international guys i do I do know that they have international scouts located um you know elsewhere but that’s you know we’re getting into the weeds of that but yeah main thing is like the main scouts and like the main people that were like traveling and doing the work the first thing they did was they let those guys go and they brought in their own guys right so doing that by default already kind of mutes Bryson’s voice a little bit because those are the guys either he brought in or has been working with for years right so it’s like cool Bryson’s guys are gone someone else’s guys are there so um now Bryson has gone himself so when it comes to is Troy gonna listen to those other voices I’d assume yes because he’s brought in his own people right otherwise like why why would you bring in those people um now I think there is in in to my understanding a very collaborative effort from like the strategy side and um you know the cap side and everything else like they all work in in tandem and Joe up to now has been someone who’s been very very diligent about hearing all the voices um in the room and and I think we kind of talked about how it’ll take him a little bit to get up to speed in and learning the rest of the or and that I think he’s very much in it and and he’s someone that like even if Troy has a very strong opinion on on on someone like yes his vote will count more than uh someone else’s but he’s going to listen to the whole uh the whole information like all of it you know from presented from from every aspect of it so like if for example like there is um you know like significant disscent you know amongst like scouts or or someone um you know let’s say like the numbers say like one player is one thing but Troy has a player is another thing like I think there will be a healthy and productive discussion and Joe will ultimately take all of that together and kind of decide from there right um um so I guess what might be a hard question to answer but it’s your understanding of the you know the folks that Troy brought in is that a they these are people who think like I do so I want to bring them in or is it these people I trust they’re smart people they may think differently than me but that’s good because we want diversity of thought in the organization do you have do you have any sense of which way that group that Troy’s brought in kind of leans no clue no clue but to to to my knowledge just again I don’t know Troy as an individual but Troy is someone that seeks to consume as much information as he possibly can about the draft um and you know about prospects and seeks to gain kind of like whatever edge that he can and so I’d be surprised if it’s a bunch of people who are like yep I just you know see the world exactly the way Troy does I would I am on the side of caution and and and if I had to place a bet on it it’s guys that he really values the opinion of um and that’s why they’re there you know that’s because the way Troy’s been described to me said um is that if you differentiate yourself um not in a contrarian way but in a skill way and and you’re able to get Troy’s respect he really values that um and so I think that would play a part in his hiring and it’s not all Troy like Joe’s Joe’s brought in people it’s not like okay Joe brought in Troy Troy yeah So that’s that’s kind of where I’m at do you do you guys Okay so that’s I think we’re all kind of like gravitating towards Okay well this is going to be more of a Troy Troy has a bigger voice type of thing just you know we’ll we’ll see how the results of that pan out um in terms of losing Bryson specifically we’re now at a point where the Pelicans three biggest decision makers in in the front office are gone so David Griffin’s gone Bryson’s gone and Swinn is gone 1 two three boom gone um and this is in addition to like the lower level folks that were were were replaced uh from an organizational standpoint uh do you do you feel like okay yay like this is going to be a change um it could be good or bad but you know a chain change was kind of necessary where we’ll see where this goes or or B are you more like well that’s a lot of organizational knowledge um and investment loss like this this could potentially you know cut cut the pelicans in a way that they don’t anticipate little column A little column B um mostly a that once a new head guy is in charge turnover is expected but this was a highly guarded uh regarded organization from top to bottom for the last five six years um if you also include Drean who was highly respected and then got the job at Detroit so there is some organizational knowledge and value that’s going to be lost but I expected it because they brought a new a new regime yeah I’ll I’ll go a step further and say I I I don’t know which direction it’s going to go but unless the the Pelicans change their ownership group I have a hard time believing that there’s going to be a material then there’s that Willie Willie is the last man standing out of that group and uh the comments from Joe that we’re going to get into a little bit here once we wrap up the Bryson and stuff um were that Willy’s here to stay for this year and you know um yeah so I’m sure that’s Do you want to just swing into those right now no I think there’s a couple of things that I want to cover because now I think the I guess the last thing I want to cover is like we’re talking about the draft moving forward but what about the drafts looking backwards you’re now in an organizational structure where effectively like no one involved with drafting any of the previous guys is around any right I mean like look there yeah let’s just put it that way like no one that actually had like a real voice um in in those situations Tjan’s not around Bryson’s not around Griff’s not around Twin’s not around the scouts aren’t around um so you have you know Herb and Trey on this team you also have Eve and Hawk on this team who this organization didn’t draft And I guess to a bigger degree you have Zion which you know we’ll talk about uh in in in the later comments and you know I think you still have Jose and Antonio Daniels and Carlo who were by you know products of the draft in one way shape or another so slight correction antonio Reeves not Antonio Daniels my fault ad hey happy Antonio Daniels made me think happy birthday to Alan Nverson if you know you know yo come on now catch you know shout out shout out AD who when we had on this podcast was was like such a good sport about like when we asked him that question um anyways Antonio Reeves um if you had to guess like what their approach is going to be to like these guys that they didn’t draft who are now not their guys like how do you expect them to operate with with with these people or these players there’s no more sunk cost no sunk cost fallacy to be uh to to to be had here and so you I think inherently you see a more objective view like maybe maybe you lose like a a sliver of the institutional knowledge and rationale to you know historical thought process and decision-m but it any any marginal benefit that might have is dwarfed by removing any sort of oh I drafted this guy so we got to we got to we got to keep him or he’s going to pan out so I everyone’s suddenly becomes a lot more tradable um than than they were you know a month ago two months ago my sentiment exactly like there are no emotional ties to anybody on this roster yeah i mean look I I think we This is probably a good point to start pivoting into Joe’s uh interviews um that he had last week one of the things that Joe kind of like highlighted to our guy Fletcher um shout out Fletcher for for an excellent interview and getting those shout out Rod shout out shout out Maline you know all the the three people that were involved in in getting those uh video clips and and quotes just great work um but uh you know one of the things he kind of like hinted at is like you know the pelicans need toughness competitiveness um those kind of traits and um I think it’s no secret last last year that the head coach called the team soft on multiple occasions uh and so if I you know if I’m Joe Dumars and I’m looking at the roster and I’m keeping around this head coach who thinks this team is soft probably want to make uh at least some changes that might reinforce that and I’m curious how you guys think those may present themselves because the one like player unfortunately uh that that I feel like could be highlighted here that I think was really really liked by the previous regime that I have no clue genuinely no clue how the new regime feels about is is Jordan Hawkins it’s one that’s that’s the big one right um and I I don’t know what his external value would be at at this point um but uh yeah I mean I I value to the Hawks maybe maybe value to the Pistons no I I was going to just point out I would assume that two people are safe maybe three um one we’re going to talk about later because we have some on the record stuff and I’ll assume Trey because of his contract and the length of it and how he’s you know a great pairing with everyone else and more than likely her but I can also be talked into him being traded because how many years he has left on his contract and he’s probably not going to extend off of it so it would be and we’ll get that that that’d be later later in the you know the summer but yeah yeah i was just saying like if you if you talk about being an organization that values toughness and competitiveness and moving and then train that that would be kind of an interesting message to send and look and I don’t I don’t disagree that like I I don’t think Herb should be an untouchable i think if if the value is right if some team’s willing to give you a surplus of picks and valuable picks of that like you have to consider it but from from you know just reading in between the lines uh with the conversations that that Joe had it he wasn’t committal about what he wants the team to look like specifically cuz he said you know Fletcher asked him about like is this going to be a rebuild what are you guys like trying to play win for and he was like I I think teams are always building he said and he said even if you look at the teams like OKC and Indiana they’re on the phones right now even though they’re in the finals and they’re always trying to build and so it was like a non-answer to a degree but it wasn’t a firm commitment to like hey we’re going to try to win games next year which is like I think not nothing cuz he easily could have gone out there be like no like we had a good team like we’re going to be trying to be competitive we are a playoff team yada yada yada it was a very like non-committal answer there and I think that does open the door to hey if this team isn’t what we think it’s going to be we’re going to pivot quickly in in in a different direction that direction might be asset acquisition or or whatever right um but yeah I mean I guess to to to kind of like we’ll get to the Zion stuff that that we’ll get to the Zion yes just just just like from from like the team building approach here like do do you feel like you walked away with some from some of those quotes like having a better sense of like what they might try to accomplish go ahead Mason uh no i I I guess I my my takeaway is that um we don’t have someone in charge who’s going to say you know Drew Holiday can be the MVP of the league anymore uh um it’s someone who’s doesn’t knows that this this next season can go a lot of different ways and more of those ways frankly are probably bad than good and so you what you don’t want to do is start selling selling to the fan base something that you can’t deliver on i think we’ve learned that that can go poorly as a a lead decision maker for this team and so that’s my uh learning from past mistakes I guess is my my bigger takeaway here i mean between these comments and the ones on um BJ Armstrong’s pot before he took a job in Sacramento I’m more in thought i think more that he is in tune what’s going in on in the league than how he wants this roster to be constructed from a personnel basis outside he want to be tough and you don’t have to have a certain number of three you don’t have to be 40 uh but he but you know he knows what’s going on within the league and what’s successful now I don’t know how he’s going to go about that because he hasn’t said what he really wants to construct the team as so the the word on the street is that they’re gonna trade up for Ace Bailey no I’m joking that is not the word on the street please go um is funny because I genuinely believe Daryl my wants the world to believe that you know I think I think my benefits a lot from this idea of like the Pelicans are in love with Ace Philly they’re going to move up to three uh blah blah blah because I don’t think he wants to make that selection and I don’t think he wants to be pressured to take an ace there um how that’s a side note but you know the word on the street is that Dum Mars is looking for a starting caliber big and a starting caliber guard um so do with that information what you what you will question you want a starting starting big and you want you want toughness stephen Adams is a free agent guys like he’s right there i was going to say are we going to rehash our summer pods from last year for Jared Allen and that other garden what’s so funny about the Jared Allen and Daryus Garland stuff is that you know in my conversations with with with folks around Cleveland and some of their media members is that they want a team that is also tough and competitive and they think maybe those are two of the guys that aren’t falling in the the toughness and competitive bucket which is pretty interesting given you know Garland was limping up and down the court um but you know it was kind of clarified to me like they need more mental toughness whatever i’m rolling whatever um Um So no DeAndre Aiden no god no we’re going to keep saying his name and we’re going to keep rejecting it and then it’s going to get traded to New Orleans and we’re not going to know what to do [Laughter] but it’s it will be interesting to see how if they’re going to be successful in these pursuits i I remember Griff going up there for multiple seasons saying we need shooting and we need rim protection and every season getting none um so so you know you could say all these things right zero zero no decision points um have have transpired yet we haven’t even hit the draft yet well easy to say this stuff um we can talk about Zion let’s let’s talk about Zion um the last show we did we all were like “This is the end of the Zion era.” Um that was our consensus right and Joe gets out here on record and he says this is not the end of the Zion era we Zion is the focal point we are going to continue to move forward with him as the franchise player and with that comes responsibilities and and he went on to say um he doesn’t need Zion to be a choir boy those are the words he used um he did say that he was advised not to comment on Le Zion’s legal situation which strong strong advice there um but you know the choir by comments could come off uh could look poorly in hindsight if things go the bad but I think the way the Pelicans are moving in this situation like they seem to be operating with some level of confidence that that these allegations are not going to stick or it’s not going to be a big deal um by the end of it which you know they have more information than we have on that matter um but he went on to say that he gave examples of Bill Lambir and Rasheed Wallace and Dennis Rodman um as players who had a lot of stuff going on but when they were on the court they were the utmost professionals and that is the expectation there’s going to be from Scion so when those comments um came out what were your thoughts and I guess what are your thoughts now that I still wouldn’t move on from Zion but here we are um probably they just didn’t find enough value on the trade market when it was out in Chicago and you don’t want to insult the guy and keep his name in limbo so you put a strong vote of confidence in him publicly and move forward that’s how I feel about the situation i remain shocked that he chose to do these interviews last week um you don’t have to say anything I think is kind of my where where my head is at and and to your point Schmidt it does communicate confidence but this isn’t a situation where just because you went out and did an interview teams be like “Oh okay zion must be innocent so we’re going to go trade we’re going to offer more stuff for him now.” Like like you’ve if I’m Joj Mars I have to be and like you said we don’t have the information he does certainly i have to be so so confident that that these are bogus allegations that I feel like I have the power to go and do these interviews and and not catch blowback for them and so I just struggle to find to to find a reality where that is beyond reproach and that that that confidence is absolute and so I still question why he went and did those interviews i don’t I just think the the the cons outweigh the pros to a strong degree but hey I am I am still you know acknowledging that this my rosecolored glasses are this means that they they know something uh that that the public doesn’t and so to to that point about knowing something the public doesn’t gail Benson also was uh had a quote and and her quote was along again and I’m paraphrasing her quote was along the lines of um you know people can sue you for anything these days whether you’re innocent or not um and and yeah I mean that was basically all that she she had to say about the the Zion situation um you think that that that is projecting a a similar level of confidence that if you know to and you got your owner and you got your lead decision maker who just kind of you know in public and they’re commenting on this like do do you feel like that that is a correct uh assumption we should derive from from these statements hopefully like I sure hope so because if it’s not that’s really really bad so I I still regardless I feel like I feel like Joe Jumar’s approach is a little little bit more professionalism than Gail did um and so I think that has to be said here where I think no matter what the outcome with Zion I think Gail’s comments were problematic um you can you can suggest that you believe in Zion without saying without kind of going as tongue and cheek as she did and c the casual comments so I I you know I got a problem with with what she said regardless but I think um I I am hopeful that the alignment there across leadership around the comments related to Zion means that they’ve got some damn good information at their disposal that we just haven’t seen yeah i mean I think Joe has done this in the league for several years now so he’s like very well equipped with with how to navigate these situations um but just you know more on Zion as a focal point he used the words franchise player he said he’s going to be a focal point those things have never been said by David Griffin in a public space even uh last year on media day um Fletcher you know Fletcher has this tradition where you ask him every single year like “Is he the franchise player?” Whatever something along those lines and and even last year when Griff was like “Well no like one guy is the guy you know like and it’s like cool.” Like it went from Drew Holidayiday as the MVP to you know like I don’t know i mean there’s been we we don’t need to rehash like the the six years of them being reticent to put put the franchise tag on Zion but Joe has come out and done it instantly um let me ask you a question do you believe they’re doing that so it could I wouldn’t say play Kato’s ego but more like hey we’re giving you the title but we also want to give you the responsibility there are there’s no you know cutting corners with this now we believe you’re the guy so act like Do you think that’s part of the process yeah i mean look I think it puts the ball in Zion’s court right like I I think it’s like okay this is this is who you are these are the expectations that come with that because I think I think while I may understand what what Griff was trying to do in terms of like I’m not just going to hand him something if he hasn’t earned it um what it does is it kind of creates this world where okay I’m not that guy i don’t need to be held to those standards i’m not the franchise guy you said it i’m I’m not the franchise guy but now it’s like cool here’s the title you are the franchise guys and these are the responsibilities that comes with this is the level of professionalism that’s expected this is what we expect of you uh on how to communicate you know um your timeliness and and all that other stuff i don’t think it’s a bad play from Joe at all i I you know that that is how I would approach it if I was trying to keep Zion or just you know like knowing that Zion’s going to be on the roster for for the Yeah for the foreseeable future i agree do whatever you can to put more make him feel more responsibility i think that’s absolutely the right the right um mentality to have um speaking of Garland do you guys see no what happened no what happened toe he’s gonna be out for like five months yeah to Oh so he’s officially a pelican now officially oh well that eases that up four to five months i just said four to five months on like regular season that Thanksgiving June July August it’s like No it’s it’s like season the the first game of the seasonish i was saying five months that’s that’s that’s like I don’t know if he’s really a Pelican it’s five months yeah pel No Pelican’s Allstar break what are you talking about we just going to trade him and and Deontay and he’s going to come back at Christmas and Daryus going to come back brandon Ingram is out there being like “See see great toast they can cost you.” Okay that popped me that popped me hard oh man love you B we think Garland is tough look how he play look how he played in the playoffs on the injury that was four to five four to five months um I I you know there was a report on Garland uh I think we that the Cleveland might be interested in taking offers on him and and additionally that they would not be interested in moving him to the Magic and helping a a rival um you know I would I would spin the block on Garland if the goal is to win games you know I I would uh people should be familiar with my opinions on Garland by now and and I think there’s a case for him to be the top player in the 2019 class um ahead of Zion and ahead of Jaw i would go as far as saying like I think he’s a better player than Jaw like in terms of impacting winning I think he is a better player than Jaw um but enough enough of Garland um now so I won them last year all I say I won them last year before it was popular before it was cool yeah um I think you know we with the rest of this this show I think we’re coming to an end here uh this was mainly to address the Bryson stuff and and kind of just backfilling on the Joe stuff we unable to do a live show uh due to the finals being on uh during our normal recording slot so we’ll make it up to you here um but moving forward you know we’re now firmly entering a territory where it’s brand new leadership across the board uh brand new decision makers and it will take us time to learn their desires and their patterns and their way of thinking you know uh it’ll take us time to build relationships with with those folks and I think that’s going to be an exciting part of the journey and process right we’ve been used to one way of thinking for the last six years and you know we’ve gotten pretty good at kind of predicting okay like how is Griff going to operate in this situation or how are they going to behave in this situation like that was um you know that was something that was earned over time now it’s going to be a repeat of that process and I do think that Joe and Troy and them like deserve a fair shake now that you know they are in these positions we’ve talked we’ve talked at nauseium about the whole hiring process and all of that whatever it’s you can’t you know that that’s all in the past they deserve a fake shake on to see how they’re going to build these environments out and I’m curious now that we’re finally in this world where there are no ties to any of the players you know uh from a lead decision maker standpoint how aggressive they’re going to be in reshaping the team to whatever their vision is yeah i I’ve always said everything before June mid June is I can speak on for Gail mid June to free agency that’s when you can start judging Joe and how they shape this roster and the Joe and Troy and his regime i I want to give him a fair shake because at the end of the day we all want to cover a good team we want to talk about a team that’s prosperous and on an upper trajectory and you know doing good things so let’s let’s hope for the best and give him that space to do it yeah i I think the only thing I’d add is this is I we are I I think Pelicans fans are at a different position different headsp space than this new front office in the sense that it’s going to take a little bit to get back to neutral here right the Dejonte Murray injury is the big the big the big issue right and so there’s not some unless you want to talk about trading all your draft capital right there’s no magic button that’s going to immediately flip the steam around and so I think we’ve got to also be patient uh at least for the first you know couple months here in letting that vision play out um right at some point you you can start to hold people’s feet to the fire but um but right now they’re dealing with the hand that they’ve been dealt um and certain and that includes you know ownership and and you know that they are going to be operating with some of the very same constraints as the past regime did and so it’s not an easy job that they have have out in front of them here so we got to give them give them a let them take a beat here and uh figure things out i I do think how they operate around the edges in terms of like just maximizing the small wins should reveal itself pretty quickly and I think with Griff even though we probably didn’t want to see it it became very apparent that he wasn’t you know like he his front office wasn’t as concerned with winning on the smaller margins when he started doing things like trading picks for for for Derek Favors and and bringing in uh JJ Reic and and you know you just like at that time we were it was too soon for us to identify a pattern but that quickly became the norm where it was like cool like we’re just going to spend our way out of issues they traded they traded a piece that’s now in the rotation for the finals as a throwaway in Kendrick Williams like they didn’t value the edges at all until it was too late when they finally found Naji that’s when it kind of started and then they leaned off of it immediately no I mean I don’t even I wouldn’t even say like they they value the edges and Naji they they you know like an any small market team they have to um be kind of aggressive about utilizing these two-way contract situations and and like sourcing in talent and they’ve they’ve done that um but it’s not something where I would say like hey this is a sign of a an aggressive process where they really have valued the margins right because they yeah they they won games with him they they identified him great success they got absolutely nothing in return for for that like there’s nothing to show for have Dyson having Dyson on the roster or he walked for free naji not Dyson sorry Naji god they got they they got something for Dyson all right they sure do they sure did yeah I I’ve got one more uh question and it’s very much living in the land of theoretical so it might be very hard to answer but let’s say that the Bucks move Giannis this off seasonason let’s say that they move him for basically a reload um and the Pelicans end up still having that pick so they don’t get involved to the third team they still have the Bucks draft capital is that something where you are trying to you’re trying to move that pick ASAP and not even going to let it get to a oh is this actually going to be an awesome pick or is it not or are you hanging on to that pick um just thinking more about continuing to load up uh that with with high you know with with high quality you know draft draft talent is that is that something where you have a strong opinion one way or the other because of the way team the Pelicans have operated around this thing historically with the Lakers picks or anything else or um Well I think I think it’s I so this is the area that I’m most gray on because I don’t know how swaps operate so the 2026 pick is a swap the Pelicans has decided to execute on that swap or not now when this situation was playing out with the Lakers Griff had vaguely explained it to me that for the Pelicans to move the Lakers swap they would have had to execute it like preemptively and then trade it and like there was like not really any ways to add any protections or conditions to it without doing that and I don’t know if I understood him correctly or if that’s the actual way like it worked but like if I’m remembering that’s how it worked if that is indeed how it works then they can’t really trade that swap because the Pelicans might be terrible next year and so you can’t compromise your own future trying to maximize the Bucks situation now if that’s not how it works if they can trade that swap aspect of it like separately in terms of like the language being you get the lesser of the New Orleans or the Bucks pick um that’s still not a good enough proposition to me because let’s say the Bucks have uh I mean I don’t know maybe that thing is like pretty valuable may maybe you could do that maybe maybe that’s that’s that’s pretty valuable but I would say like well what if you’re in a situation where like you know the the Pelicans are you know have the 10th pick and the Bucks have the fourth pick so like the Pelicans get the fourth and then I guess team X get the 10th pick like yeah that could be pretty valuable like a team could could vet could bet on FA like Yeah both these teams are gonna suck yeah both teams are gonna suck we’ll be you know we’re getting a good pick either way i don’t know what about What about 27 yeah is that Yeah that one’s also similar right cuz that one that’s the one I would try to move it’s Yeah go ahead but the language on that one’s the exact same the language on that one is the Pelicans get the better of those two picks so like even though it’s not a swap but the way it was traded to Atlanta that’s what the language is so like I don’t know how you untangle that you know so it’s one through four pelicans keep that they discard their then they give away their draft pick to Atlanta if it’s not one through four then Atlanta gets the Bucks pick right not exactly okay it is straight up whichever pick is better the Pelicans get whichever pick is worse the Hawks get but if the Bucks pick is top four and the Pelicans pick is top four the Pelicans get both picks yes I do remember that that’s what I do know which that’s fun that’s a fun outcome for the Pelicans you know that’s that’s a really fun outcome for the Pelicans but it’s like again you’re very much in this situation where like the the differentiation on picks that you’re dealing with could be like six and 10 and you’re like [ __ ] and I don’t know how you untangle that from a trade aspect i I have to ask a cap guy like which I probably going to do after this this call hey how does this look actually I think it’s only fair of the Hawks now and now that Bryson’s over there he can do the Pelicans a solid and say because of what happened with Desante and how good Dyson’s been responsibilities are extinguished we’re good here we’re done i think you’re going to get a middle finger through the phone if you come i’ll get I’ll get two i’ll get two yeah yeah yeah yeah exactly um Yeah anyways uh I think this is a good stopping point we will reconvene um likely this weekend and likely have a live show uh you guys deserve that so um Jay take us home as she said unfortunately we’re not live but we appreciate you guys watching and listening um tell a friend to tell a friend try to boost us up to 700 subscribers we trying to beat the algorithm over here um like subscribe share and do what you can for us thank y’all love y’all appreciate y’all yeah peace how do I do the closure there it is [Music] [Applause] [Music]

New Orleans Pelicans GM, Bryson Graham is joining the Atlanta Hawks as Senior Vice President of Basketball Operations.

The In The N.O. crew breaks down what this means for the Pelicans moving forward. We also review Joe Dumars’ latest public facing comments and Zion Williamson and more!

#Pelicans #nbafranchise #nba #Hawks #atlanta #Zion