Squawk Box: NBA Draft, Organizational Upgrades, Trades and More

A round up of chatter around the Pelicans as draft day approaches

The Pelicans made some buzz Tuesday afternoon by conduction a draft related trade well before the draft. The transaction sent Indiana’s top 4 protected pick in 2026 back to the Pacers in exchange for pick 23 in this year’s draft and the rights for Mojave King. The trade launched healthy speculation by media and executives alike on if the Pelicans are preparing for an aggressive trade up. In this Friday edition of the Squawk Box, we’ll breakdown the Pelicans’ motives for conducting the trade as well as address chatter around the draft and organization.

Trading Up?

When the Pelicans first executed this trade, I received a flurry of texts, all along the lines of, “are the Pelicans trying to trade up??”. Now I can understand why this may have been an initial reaction for some, as the Pelicans have been rumored to be interested in Ace Bailey. Yet, based on my conversations, the Pelicans have not expressed the desire to combine picks and move up in any serious fashion. Every team conducts due diligence on the price to move, and there is always opportunity during draft night when teams are on the clock, but the Pelicans are content with their current positioning.

Nevertheless, the Pelicans have great confidence in their evaluation of this draft, and a huge driver behind acquiring pick 23 is doubling down on what the organization perceives as its strengths. Sources familiar with the Pelicans’ thinking have relayed to me that the Pelicans want multiple shots in this draft class.

”I know this draft,” Joe Dumars told Rod Walker of nola.com. “We’re going to get a really good player at seven.” The team’s actions match these words as well. The Pelicans have worked out a large portion of this draft class, at all ranges. There have been more than a few standouts that project to be available at 23 who the Pelicans will be quite happy with. They have done their homework thoroughly here.

The last component of the trade was the rights to Mojave King. King, a New Zealand native, is currently playing in the New Zealand NBL. The Pelicans are planning on hosting training camp in Australia this fall and King will likely be joining them down under. However, the trade for King’s rights is more of a flexibility tool than a bet on a roster spot. These rights come in handy in multi-team trades when parties are required to “touch” others involved in the transaction. King’s rights can also come in handy for tricky cap situations where a team might be close to the tax or an apron, and King can be signed for a rookie minimum - which is less than the traditional minimum. This can be meaningful savings for a team.

Player Development Investment

Additionally, Joe Dumars and the Pelicans are looking to revamp the player development system. Michael Scotto of Hoops Hype reported the Pelicans are searching for an assistant coach to spearhead this effort to replace Dan Geriot— who left for the head coaching position at Iona. Sources tell me Dumars is prepared to invest heavily in this area and views it as a critical strategic arm of the Pelicans. If the team is going to invest in young players, it follows that the proper infrastructure is created for their development. It was strongly iterated to me that Dumars intends to revamp this department with regards to processes and tools.

The previous state of player development left many opportunities for improvement to match the cutting edge practices of the top NBA teams. More than one person has relayed to me the significant investment Oklahoma City has in player development. The Thunder employ nearly half a dozen remote video interns who log and tag every shot and play run at practice for analysis later.

Compare this to the Pelicans, who have deployed the proprietary NOAH shooting system over the past few years but have rarely put it in use. The NOAH system is an advanced shot tracking system that builds shooting models and gives real time feedback to users. Other NBA teams have used NOAH to measure and track shooting improvements in players, and in some cases even break them out of shooting slumps. It appears Pelicans have been lagging compared to their rivals in putting these tools to use.

The Dejounte Murray Comments

Dejounte Murray appeared on the Pivot Podcast, and I strongly encourage everyone to take some time to listen to Dejounte’s story. Murray highlights a life of struggle and tells a great story of how he’s overcome insurmountable odds to become a successful basketball player. There was a portion in the interview where Murray opens up about the struggles he faced during his first year with the Pelicans.

With raw honesty, Murray recounts how his mom suffered a stroke during training camp and was in and out of the hospital for a while. Murray goes on to suggest the organization may not have provided him the necessary support he was seeking.

“From that moment, the organization…it got bad man,” Murray details. “As you guys can see, such and such got fired, another guy left, they brought new people in. It was a situation where… I got all these problems going on— I broke my hand and recovered, my mom had a stroke, one of my cousins got killed, then my uncle overdosed. Back to back to back. In the meantime in all of this, I’m not getting what I need in the organization. It’s hard for me to get my training table time, it’s hard for me to get lifts, it’s hard for me to get my on court time— so you can can only imagine where my mental is every day.”

I’m not going to mince words. The interview was rough. Murray did not hold back his feelings on what transpired last season. Dumars and company have a large obstacle to overcome to change the perception of the franchise and repair the relationship with Murray. However, I did ask people around the organization about Murray’s comments regarding on court time, table time and lifts. There is a general sense of confusion from the people I conversed with. Table times and court times are posted in advance, every single day, and Murray was on the schedule every time. It’s unclear what Murray’s specific gripe with the scheduling is, but sources maintain he was not left off the schedule or denied opportunity at any point.

Draft Speculation

This is how I believe the draft is going to shake out in the first few picks based on all available information I have in front of me. Reminder, this is my BELIEF. I am not reporting here. Spoiling picks before the draft is a job for more qualified people than me.

1. Cooper Flagg, Dallas

2. Dylan Harper, San Antonio

3. VJ Edgecombe, Philadelphia

4. Kon Knueppel, Charlotte

After four it gets tricky. Rutgers’ Ace Bailey has not yet worked out for any NBA teams but there will be plenty of curiosity regarding his landing spot. If I had to guess, picks five and six will be Tre Johnson and Ace Bailey in some order. This would leave Khaman Maluach and Jerimiah Fears still on the board for the Pelicans at seven.

To my understanding, both are players the Pelicans have been excited about during the draft process. I have heard from league executives that Fears’ floor is likely eight with Brooklyn and Maluach’s floor is likely nine with Toronto.

Could the Pelicans be entertaining some wildcard at seven outside of these two players? It’s possible. Noa Essengue has yet to workout with NBA teams because his team is still playing Germany. The biggest confounding factor will be if Ace Bailey falls to seven. This is especially true if all three of Fears, Maluach, and Bailey are on the board. Would the Pelicans pass on Bailey? Would Bailey try to maneuver himself to Brooklyn? These are questions being asked around the league right now. There is still a great deal of external belief that the Pelicans are enthralled by the idea of Bailey. Jonathan Givony of ESPN noted that Bailey’s representation believes the Pelicans are among a few teams that would be willing to trade up for the mercurial forward.

I will have a more formalized prediction on draft day, as is tradition.

Best Options at Pick 23

Based on the consensus big board at rookiescale.com, here are my six best available options at 23 and above.

1. Walter Clayton Jr. - consensus big board ranking: 26 | My ranking 8

2. Ryan Kalkbrenner - 32 | 13

3. Rasheer Fleming - 25 | 14

4. Johni Broome - 39 | 18

5. Bogoljub Marković - 37 | 23

6. Kam Jones - 35 | 25

You can see my full list here: