New Orleans Pelicans: Complete 2017 offseason grades

Gerald Bourguet

Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images

The New Orleans Pelicans are all in on a return to the playoffs in 2018, but did they do enough this summer to get there? Here are their complete 2017 offseason grades.

Thanks to their two-man frontcourt duo of Anthony Davis and DeMarcus Cousins, the New Orleans Pelicans have a solid foundation to build upon. With that kind of star power and versatility, anything less than a playoff appearance in 2018 would be a major disappointment.

Unfortunately for the Pellies, last summer’s irresponsible spending left them with little means of building an improved supporting cast around the foundation. With Boogie approaching unrestricted free agency next summer, the pressure was on this front office to assemble a legitimate playoff squad with a higher ceiling.

After the 2017 NBA Draft and free agency, it’s safe the say the results were mixed. While the Pelicans had a strong summer overall, their mistakes from a year ago came back to haunt them somewhat and limited what they were able to put around their superstar tandem.

In order to make sense of where the Pelicans stand and how they fared this summer, here’s a look at their complete 2017 offseason grades, including what they were able to accomplish in the draft and free agency.

Drafting a Dukie

With the No. 40 pick, the Pelicans were able to trade up nine spots in a deal with the Charlotte Hornets. At No. 31, they took Duke’s Frank Jackson, a 6’4″ point guard who, at the time, was meant to provide a bit of long-term insurance at the backup point guard spot.

At that point, Jrue Holiday was no guarantee to re-sign, and after trading Tim Frazier to the Washington Wizards for pick No. 52 (more on this in a minute), all the Pelicans had left at the 1-spot was Jordan Crawford and Quinn Cook.

Jackson is a bit of a project still at only 19 years old, but snagging a potential first round prospect early in the second round was a nice addition to what little young talent New Orleans has. Though he’s not NBA-ready yet, Jackson has a higher ceiling than Frazier. Thanks to the team’s free agency moves, he’ll be eased into the action as well.

He may not ever become a star, but he’s got good size for his position, can play both guard spots on offense and represents solid value for pick No. 31 in the draft.

Grade: B+

More draft maneuvers

This is a move that came in two parts, with one happening before the 2017 NBA Draft and the other being a head-scratching conclusion on draft night.

To get things started, the Pelicans dealt their backup point guard, Tim Frazier, to the Wizards for Washington’s No. 52 overall pick. Considering the Pellies’ lack of stability in the backcourt at the time, it was a bit of a puzzling move, even if this is the kind of team that needs to start putting young talent around its star core.

Though Frazier only averaged 7.1 points and 5.2 assists in 23.5 minutes per game last year, he was a competent floor general off the bench. Trading up to select Jackson helped mitigate the loss, but instead of using their No. 52 pick on another young player, the Pelicans quickly pivoted and gave it away to the Indiana Pacers for cash considerations.

So to recap, the Pelicans approached draft night with Frazier and the 40th overall pick and emerged with the 31st overall pick (Jackson) and cash (which could’ve been the 52nd overall pick). That’s not a terrible exchange by any means, but it’s a bit odd the Pelicans basically wound up trading a decent backup like Frazier for nothing more than cash.

Grade: C-

An extended Holiday

Without the requisite cap space to sign one of the potential point guard upgrades floating around the free agency market, the Pelicans really had no choice but to pucker up and give Jrue Holiday the deal he wanted. In the end, it was a massive five-year, $126 million investment.

Paying more than $25 million a season for Holiday is bad enough before factoring in how that contract could reach up to $150 million in bonuses, but it gets even worse when one realizes he’s missed 122 games over his last four seasons. In fact, he’s only reached the 70-game threshold three times in his eight years in the league.

With a limited amount of cap space and a dynamic frontcourt duo that needs accompanying talent, the Pelicans wouldn’t have been able to find a comparable replacement if Holiday had signed elsewhere. By being able to go over the cap to re-sign Holiday, New Orleans had little choice but meet his demands to retain a player Anthony Davis likes.

The ol' over-a-barrel special. https://t.co/5v5TksQgSq
— Zach Lowe (@ZachLowe_NBA) July 1, 2017

The Pelicans were never going to be able to afford an upgrade like Kyle Lowry or George Hill, and short of miraculously stringing together a trade for someone like Eric Bledsoe, this is probably as good as they were going to do. He’s certainly not a bad point guard; he competes on both ends of the floor, doesn’t require too many touches and can facilitate to his two star offensive weapons.

However, it cannot be ignored that Holiday is relatively average in a league where talent at that position is absolutely stacked. Can you win a championship with Jrue Holiday as your starting point guard?

Last season, Holiday was healthy and only missed time to tend to his wife. He averaged an encouraging 15.4 points, 7.3 assists, 3.9 rebounds and 1.5 steals per game on. 454/.356/.708 shooting splits, and his re-signing shows Davis and Cousins that this franchise is committed to building around its three stars. Now Holiday has to start playing like one.

Grade: B-

Rondo revival

After trading Frazier for a second round draft pick, the Pelicans needed more stability in the backcourt than rookie Frank Jackson was going to be able to provide. To that end, landing Rajon Rondo on a one-year contract isn’t a bad deal by any means.

Miller time

On a two-year deal worth $4.3 million (with the second year being a team option), the New Orleans Pelicans are bringing Darius Miller back to the NBA after he spent the last two and a half years playing for Brose Bamberg in Germany.

During that time, he won two Bundesliga championships, earned Finals MVP honors in 2016 and made the All-BBL First Team in 2017. He also shot over 40 percent from 3-point range.

Miller is 27 years old and spent his first two years and change in the NBA with the Pellies, averaging 3.1 points in 14.3 minutes per game on .420/.351/.841 shooting splits. Expectations shouldn’t be high with a depth signing like this, but at that price tag, it doesn’t hurt either.

Grade: C

Cap-friendly Clark

Since the Pelicans plan on playing Rajon Rondo and Jrue Holiday together in the backcourt, signing a capable backup point guard was imperative for this playoff-hopeful squad, lest they had to resort to the rookie Jackson.

With a one-year deal for Ian Clark for the veteran minimum, NOLA landed a quality reserve whose ceiling was limited with a powerhouse like the Golden State Warriors.

Though this move put the Pellies near the hard cap, it also provided a backup floor general who averaged 6.8 points in just 14.8 minutes per game last season — all while shooting 48.7 percent from the floor and 37.4 percent from downtown.

After last summer’s ill-fated spending spree, New Orleans did a nice job bouncing back with cheap deals for useful free agents this offseason. Rondo and Clark are the poster children for that movement, and the floor-spacing Clark provides off the bench will be very helpful for a team in need of 3-point shooting and depth.

Grade: A-

Overall

If it weren’t for the mistakes of the past few summers, the New Orleans Pelicans’ 2017 offseason would’ve stood out more. Given what limited room they had to work with, the front office did a commendable job of battening down the hatches for a hopeful return to the playoffs.

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The Pellies originally put themselves in a good position by trading for Cousins, which gave Davis some much-needed reassurance that it can put a title contender around him one day. Landing Rondo for only $3.3 million, adding a useful backup like Clark for $1.6 million and even extending Jrue Holiday for that hefty amount ensures NOLA won’t take a step backward in 2017-18.

However, giving a five-year deal to a relatively average and injury-prone point guard comes with inherent risk, especially with so much on the line in trying to keep Anthony Davis and DeMarcus Cousins invested for the long-term. Yes, it probably made the Brow happy, and yes, the Pelicans few other options.

But the supporting cast outside of the team’s big names is as lackluster as ever, thanks in no small part to the $82 million over four years the Pelicans handed out to mediocre players like Solomon Hill and E’Twaun Moore last summer. And that’s without even mentioning the cap book blemishes that remain in Omer Asik and Alexis Ajinca.

Given what they had to work with, it was a relatively successful summer for the Pelicans. But after watching all of their fellow competitors for the West’s final playoff spots get better this summer, it’s hard not to judge the Pellies for their lack of movable assets/cap space to make the kind of blockbuster upgrade this promising core needs to start making real waves.

Final Grade: B-

Gerald Bourguet