This was apparently the deal we walked away from. Marang echoed it, and so did this account: https://twitter.com/GriffinPresser I know it's some BS account but it seems pretty dialed in on the takes: Knew they would take Hawkins: IDK what the salary filler would have been. Presumably Ant, maybe Nurk/Little. But regardless. Part of me feels like #3/Sharpe for Zion is the risky swing we never made in the Dame era. But hard to fault it. If Zion didn't average 28 games a year I'd definitely do it. Also this: I wonder if we tried haggling for Trey. I'd do the deal for Zion/Trey. Maybe Cronin tried, who knows. LOL, this dude definitely knows stuff:
And if my mother had wheels she’d be a bicycle. If Zion played 50 games a year you couldn’t get him for Sharpe and #3. I’m really glad we didn’t do that deal. Zion is a bust.
If that was the deal, I'm delighted we passed. Also, while I'm not saying this poster did it in THIS case, an account can make a bunch of "The Pelicans will pick [insert guy here]. Guaranteed." posts and then just zap all except the one that turned out to be the case, leaving the "guarantee" looking prescient. He also posted five hours after his "guarantee": Pels went into the night thinking Gradey Dick or Lively would be there. When they weren't, they saw if there were trade down options. None really materialized so they took the guy who had the best workout for them - Jordan Hawkins. Which doesn't seem consistent with the guarantee, since he would have had to know that Dick and Lively would be gone even as the Pelicans did not.
Wow! But I get why Joe wouldn't do it. If it's Ant/ #3 , that's fair for a guy who hasn't stayed healthy. But worth the risk, because you still have Shaedon in the future if he stays. But when you include Sharpe, the Blazers have no insurance. Griffin can eat a dick if that was the case. He was trying to be sly. Now if Zion stays healthy , it's all good. But if he doesn't, and he passed on Scoot, and Scoot makes good, Griffin is an idiot.
Read through his history. Could be all made up, but why? It's a small account, clearly targeted towards only the NO fanbase. He's not looking for clout, so what other reason could he have other than to just share some information with fans of his own team. The Hawkins thing was actually a joke. He said all week he didn't want them to pick Hawkins, and then they actually did.
I'm not going to go through the history of a small account set up to share information targeted towards only the NO fanbase. There's no way that I was to know it was a joke, given the way you posted it, when you said, "Knew they would take Hawkins". It sounds like one guy's opinion, which is fine, but not really credible as a source.
I mean, I'm not here to debate whether this guy is telling the truth or not. It's been echoed by more than just him, but that's not the point. If this WAS the deal, and we turned it down, I'm glad we did. Curious what he's referring to here. Maybe we'll find out someday.
I hope there is somebody on a New Orleans Pelicans forum somewhere posting KingSpeed’s predictions on his Twitter account!
I was totally convinced that we could gamble with Zion. But if this proposal is really what was on the table, I won't ever blame Cronin for not agreeing. #3 OR Sharpe, why not. But not both.
The Zion dilemma is a little hard. His availability under the new CBA would have been crippling. Just look at Kawai these past few years - it would have been even worse...we dont want that. On the other hand - would you get prime Shaq for 50% of the season if you could? can everything fall into place just one season for us to win it all with him and Dame?
As many have stated above, if this was the deal for Zion, i'm glad Cronin turned it down. It is almost hilarious, that after all this, we could be left with yet another very talented but small guard to pair with Dame Wonder if there asking price comes down as we get deeper into the off-season? Think they are desperate to move him.
Well, if it's true, my respect for Cronin grows. What with all the pressure that would be hard to turn down. If you 100% knew Zion would turn it around and stay in shape, then you almost certainly should take it (I love Sharpe but his type of player is a lot easier to find than Zion) but that's almost certainly never going to happen.
