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I'm going to say something that is probably going to raise some hairs, so brace yourself: the New Orleans Pelicans should no longer be an NBA franchise. Deep breaths. Okay. Now let me explain.
Earlier this week, superstar big man Anthony Davis asked the Pelicans for a trade after six-and-a-half years toiling in mediocrity (at best) with the organization. Throughout his tenure in New Orleans, Davis made the playoffs just twice, losing in the first round to the Golden State Warriors in 2015 and falling to the Warriors again—this time in the second round—last spring.
That is as far as the Pelicans have gotten since drafting Davis out of Kentucky in 2012 in spite of the fact that they have had a top-five player in the league on their roster for the majority of that time.
Heck, a legitimate argument can be made that Davis is now the best player in the NBA.
Right now, New Orleans owns a record of 23-29 and is not even resembling a playoff team. And remember: the Pels came into this season as a trendy pick to finish in the top four or five in the Western Conference after the year they had last season.
Obviously, things have not turned out that way.
The front office has simply done a terrible job of surrounding Davis with the appropriate talent needed to legitimately contend, and Davis doesn't have to look any further than Kevin Garnett's 12-year run with the Minnesota Timberwolves to know where this would probably head if he doesn't change teams soon.
Herein lies the problem with the New Orleans franchise: it's hard to envision this ever changing.
The Pelicans are heavily reliant on draft picks to build their team, as New Orleans is not exactly a free-agent hot spot, and the Pels don't even make enough revenue to be serious players for top-tier free agents anyway.
The franchise did get a No. 1 pick in 2012, and it did draft a transcendent player in Davis. But even then, New Orleans has still been, for the most part, a bottom-feeder in the NBA.
As a matter of fact, since the franchise moved from Charlotte and began playing in New Orleans during the 2002-03 campaign (remember: the franchise was the Hornets then), it has made just seven playoff appearances and has not made it any further than the second round, a feat it only achieved twice.
Davis is not the only great player the New Orleans franchise drafted, either.
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Back in 2005, the then-Hornets drafted Chris Paul, who eventually led them to a 56-win campaign capped by a second-round loss to the San Antonio Spurs in 2008.
That marked the only time that the New Orleans franchise ever had a 50-win season. The following year, the Hornets won 49 games and meekly bowed out of the first round against the Denver Nuggets.
The problem? Again, New Orleans couldn't surround Paul with enough talent, and when it did have good players. it couldn't hold on to them (like Tyson Chandler, for example).
The Pelicans are now basically running on a hamster wheel. Think about it: what more can they possibly do? You can say, “Well, hopefully they can land a star in the draft and start building around him.”
Uh, you mean like Anthony Davis? If New Orleans couldn't make it work with him, what makes you think it can make it work with anyone else?
Now, to be fair, the Pelicans are not the only organization guilty of this. Look at the aforementioned Timberwolves, for example, who have made the playoffs just once since trading Garnett in 2007. That franchise has been an absolute disaster for over a decade, and it doesn't look like Karl-Anthony Towns is going to be able to save it.
But right now, because of the circumstances concerning Davis, the Pelicans are the focus.
Because New Orleans is such a small market, it is almost impossible for the franchise to legitimately contend. The Pelicans don't have the luxury of the Los Angeles Lakers or the Miami Heat, franchises that can attract free agents based on climate and night life alone.
As bad as the Lakers had been the previous several years, you knew their ineptitude was not going to last forever because, well, they are in Hollywood, and look what happened this past summer: they landed one of the biggest fish in history in LeBron James, solely because of the market in which the franchise plays. What? You think James really went there because he couldn't wait to play with Lonzo Ball?
The sad fact of the matter is that, short of changing locations, there is not much the Pelicans can do to change this.
Sure, they can try to build a winning culture to make the franchise a more attractive landing spot for other players, but that is incredibly difficult to do in that market. Again, just ask Minnesota.
New Orleans will trade Davis sometime before next season, and the Pelicans will then be back to square one.
I'm not sure how much longer the franchise is going to last.
