Trade CJ McCollum to New Orleans

Seriously, though, I look at the Pelicans roster -- minus Zion -- and it's almost like CJ left the Blazers and went to Blazers v2. The NO roster looks like it was comprised in much the same way. It's very flawed. Last night, they had 20 assists on 44 FGs and most of those came when they were trying to fight back from being down a dozen at half; that sounds very Blazers of the last few years. Memphis had 29 assists on 47 FGs even without Ja.

 

Sure but supporting cast is a lot easier to find than Allstars.

Zion/CJ/BI is better than anything we have had in a very long time (if they’re healthy)

 

That's fine, Nate, but it's also clearly not what I presented, isn't it? Zion's not there, and I specified "IF" he's not in the picture. I didn't bring up a hypothetical Pelicans team in a year or two that's starting 0-0 like everyone else. I'm talking about this NO team, with its personnel, in this position in the standings.

 

maybe we'll need to tank our remaining games with them - prob is we don't do tanking well!

 

Ingram is their only all star.

 

Zion isn’t an all star? What?

 

he plays?

 

Zion being out of course means Greg Oden is trending on Twitter....

 

Deja Vu and it is not a pleasant memory.

 

all too familiar with this unfortunately. and it was predictable.

 

Did he play Dance Dance Revolution?

 

Por fans know about injuries to stars and top draft picks! Sorry for Pels, unless Zion loses a boat load of weight this likely does not end well

 

Well that's kind of a different point altogether isn't it?

 

I think it's pretty clear that New Orleans acquired CJ with the intent of pairing him with Zion, and if Zion never does get healthy, CJ's contract will be up by the end of that experiment so they start over regardless.

It would be sort of silly to say Brooklyn's roster is garbage if picking a home game where Kyrie couldn't play, and Durant + Harden/Simmons wasn't suited up, wouldn't it? Things change in that respect, faster for some than others, but you're always building around the impact players under contract.

 

What does that have to do with the Pelicans this year and their draft pick this year and their roster for the remainder of this year, since that was the point of contention?

 

Nothing about those points directly, other than maybe the last one if Zion comes back, but it frames their view of the roster.

 

Even getting to #5 or 6 gives then a 42% and 37% chance of going in the top four with the ping pong balls. We might be hoping we lose to them by the time we get to our games with them late March and early April..

 

Sure, but next year the Pelicans will have a roster around CJ, Zion and Ingram so it might be a good core for next year.

 

First, this is the third time I guess I'm going to have to say that we weren't talking about next year or the year after. What the Pels might or might not have next year has zero impact on what they put on the floor in the last couple of months this year, how they don't share the ball, don't defend, don't win consistently, and how it stands to impact the Blazers in the 2022 lottery.

BUT ...

For years I've read on this board how horrible CJ was, or what a bad fit he was, or how he couldn't share the ball or defend. Now, in the space of a few hours, without even trying, I seem to have consolidated people that CJ McCollum is star-spangled awesome and just the piece the Pels needed to be a contender.

Also, everyone seems to be pointing out that the Pels with Zion are a lot better than the Pels without Zion. Well, duh. I'd tell you I hate to be mean about that, but I don't, because I qualified that in the very first post I made on the subject. However, Zion playing and being at optimum level at this point is kind of presumptuous, isn't it? While we've been having this discussion, it's being reported he might need another surgery on his foot. He's played 85 games in three years. He was hurt in college.

And the Pelicans are 40-45 with Zion.

That's 40-45 with Zion and Ingram, too. Some of that time they also had Jrue Holiday, Lonzo Ball. Good players who reading this board I've been told are superior to CJ McCollum for years.

Anyway, this wasn't even my argument, but, since people keep wanting to force it on me, I'll take it. Feel free to explain how the heck any of you know Zion is coming back and will be what he was when he was healthy and how the addition of him and CJ solve the Pelicans' issues with playing defense and passing the ball, because I don't think either of them do that, and Brandon Ingram's been there this whole time, too, and I don't see him suddenly becoming Magic Johnson.

It's silly that I keep being asked to defend a position that I never took, but it's even sillier that the rebuttal to the position I'm getting pounded over is out of some kind of fan fiction.