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The New Orleans Pelicans landed the No. 7 pick in the NBA Draft Lottery. As a result, it didn't please Pelicans forward Trey Murphy III.
On the Young Man & The Three Podcast, he remained cautious about his concerns with the draft lottery. However, he addressed the skepticism surrounding the wrong teams winning it.
“This is a touchy topic right here because I feel like I can’t say too much, I’ve got to dance around this,” Murphy said. “But on one hand, there are teams that purposely tanked, and it did not go well for them. So I guess the league kind of addressed that issue.”
One of the main issues was teams intentionally tanking and being rewarded with the No. 1 pick. The Philadelphia 76ers were the first ones to take advantage of this system.
After Adam Silver became the NBA commissioner, he proposed a change to the draft lottery. As a result, the team with the worst record hasn't achieved the No. 1 pick in quite some time.
On the flip side, the Pelicans had a 12.5% chance to land the No. 1 pick. Still, they ended up with the No. 7 pick.
Trey Murphy III thinks the Pelicans got screwed in the draft lottery
The Pelicans had eight players out in one game. That was a synopsis of the season. They dealt with a plethora of injuries to everyone, including superstars Brandon Ingram and Zion Williamson.
Not to mention, the Pelicans traded Ingram at the trade deadline and embraced the rebuild. However, they weren't trying to tank the entire year.
That's a point that Murphy hammered home.
“Then there are other teams that did not purposely tank and were struck with bad luck,” Murphy said. “The injury bug, and they didn’t get punished. You go through a season of all the trials and tribulations, losses, and injuries, and you end up with the number seven.
“I’m not going to say specific teams. With a pick that you thought you were not going to get. So it’s tough to see and then realize your season at one point was going to focus on the draft, and this is what you got out of it.”
Either way, the Pelicans got the short end of the stick in the draft lottery. However, they have the talent and a head coach in Willie Green that can right the wrongs of this past season.
Still, not landing a Top 5 pick could be a major bummer for the franchise.
