The New Orleans Pelicans have done a whole lot of wheeling and dealing of late, and general manager David Griffin says the team does not have any plans of moving any of the pieces they have recently acquired, according to Scott Kushner of The New Orleans Advocate.
The Pelicans shook the NBA last weekend when they traded Anthony Davis to the Los Angeles Lakers for Brandon Ingram, Lonzo Ball, Josh Hart, the fourth overall pick in this year's draft and a couple of future first-round selections.
New Orleans then proceeded to trade the fourth pick to the Atlanta Hawks for the eighth, 17th and 35th overall selections in the draft, also sending guard Solomon Hill and a second-round pick to the Hawks in the process.
Including their own pick, which was first overall, the Pelicans owned three first-rounders on Thursday night and ended up selecting Duke's Zion Williamson, Texas' Jaxson Hayes and Virginia Tech's Nickeil Alexander-Walker.
That's a whole lot of young talent coming in, and while there had previously been some talk that New Orleans was seeking out more established young players, it ended up just drafting three players in the first round, which fits right in with its timeline.
The Pels probably won't be all that good next season, but with a nice young nucleus centered by Williamson, they could end up being a force in the Western Conference sometime down the road.
The Pelicans are coming off of a 2018-19 campaign in which they won just 33 games, one year after winning 48 games and making it to the second round of the playoffs.
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