New Orleans Pelicans: A look back at NBA Draft history before 2018
The New Orleans Pelicans have had their most successful season ever, but now they have to focus on the 51st pick in the upcoming 2018 NBA Draft.
The New Orleans Pelicans have just completed their most successful season since adopting the Pelicans brand. As a franchise, this season can only be bettered by the 2007-08 season, when the New Orleans Hornets won 56 games and lost in the Western Conference semifinals. This season, they won 48 games, losing in the same round.
The reward for that season was the 21st pick of the 2009 NBA Draft, where they selected Darren Collison. Unfortunately for the Hornets, they were not able to build on their success. In 2009, they lost in the first round of the playoffs.
The next two seasons, New Orleans was buried deep in the pack. It missed the playoffs in 2010 before losing in the first round in 2011. However, it was in this 2011-12 season where the Hornets traded Chris Paul.
Paul was the highest draft pick in the history of the franchise, he was taken with the fourth overall pick in 2005. At the end of the 2011-12, season the Hornets’ record was good enough for fourth in the draft. They then won the draft lottery and moved up to the No. 1 pick where they selected the superstar Anthony Davis.
The road ahead
The New Orleans Pelicans are back at the crossroads. They are at the point where they can possibly take the next step forward. They have a stronger team than they did when they reached the conference semifinals last time.
Apart from major free agency decisions, the Pelicans have a single pick in the 2018 NBA Draft, which is in the second round. They would’ve also had pick No. 22, but they sent that selection to the Chicago Bulls in the Nikola Mirotic trade. This leaves the Pelicans with the No. 51 pick. They have never had this pick in their 15-year draft history.
In fact, the Pelicans have only had 12 second round picks in their history. They have only kept half of these picks, choosing to trade the other six on draft night. Since 2011, the only player who the Pelicans have kept beyond draft night is Darius Miller, who was taken at No. 46 in 2012.
Delving deeper into the later picks for the Pelicans, they have only had two after No. 50. The first of these was in 2015 when the Pelicans selected Branden Dawson at No. 56. Dawson would then be traded to the Los Angeles Clippers on draft night for cash considerations.
The only other pick after No. 50 the Pelicans have ever had was in 2017, at No. 52. There, they selected Edmond Sumner. True to form, the Pelicans traded him on draft night to the Indiana Pacers for cash.
History by the numbers
While pick No. 51 does not have a great many success stories, it still has produced one of the greatest 3-point shooters in NBA history. Kyle Korver was taken 51st overall back in 2004. Otherwise, most other players taken with this pick have either not played or played very little.
Next: 2018 NBA Mock Draft - Doncic still No. 1 in post-lottery edition
There is a good change the Pelicans will draft a player and then trade him to someone else for whatever they can get.