So it’s now time for the second installment of the Where Should LeBron Go Series. If you missed the first part, where I discussed the possibility of LeBron and Kyrie reuniting in Boston, I’d suggest checking it out before giving this a read: Where Should LeBron Go? Part I . At the end of the day however, I am not your mother, and you can do what you want. Anyways, in this installment, we are going to take a look at a team that some may think are on the outskirts of the LeBron sweepstakes. When I started this series, I honestly had them barely thrown in as the 6th team because I just wanted 6 instead of 5. After doing the research and writing this blog however, I have realized the error in my ways. This team of course is the New Orleans Pelicans. Due to the fact that I only see them twice a year when they play Boston, I haven’t realized just how good the Pelicans have been this year. After breaking down what they would look like with LeBron in the fold, shivers ran down my spine thinking about just how dominant this team could be. So without further ado, let’s get right into it, and see if I can convince you why New Orleans would be such a great home for LeBron in 2018 and beyond!
New Orleans Pelicans
LeBron has only played for teams with red in their color wheel, and that streak would definitely continue if he decided to take his talents to New Orleans. Before we get into the breakdown of whether or not this would be a good move for LeBron, we need to figure out what the roster would look like with LeBron in the fold. Just to clarify, this is not meant to be what I think the Pelicans would actually do, but what I would do with their roster to make the best team I could be with LeBron in the fold. Somewhat obviously when you are bringing in a guy like LeBron who is going to command a max deal, our estimate is 32 million a year, the team is going to have to ditch some good players to make room. The biggest cap casualty here is going to be Nikola Mirotic, the sharp shooting power forward who the Pelicans just traded for. Although I believe that Mirotic is a solid player with a ton of potential, I don’t think that he is the right guy to pair with LeBron. In my opinion, LeBron was at his best with the defensive minded team he had in Miami as opposed to the all offense no defense team he has currently in Cleveland. That being said, Mirotic is out due to the fact that he is primarily an offensive player, and a pretty weak defender. The other 2 cap casualties are going to be E’twaun Moore and Alex Ajinca. These guys are both solid players, but if you look at the numbers, it would be impossible to sign LeBron without first getting rid of their salaries.
In terms of how we are going to get rid of their salaries, teams will be more than willing to take on Mirotic due to the fact that he is an expiring contract and a very promising young talent. In terms of Moore and Ajinca, we might need to attach a second round pick to them to get someone to take on their salaries, but this is nothing that hasn’t been done before. Bottom dwelling teams hungry for any sort of assets with no intention of winning games in 2018 would be more than happy to take on their salaries during the offseason when most teams have a ton of cap space to spend. Anyways, after signing LeBron, we will be sitting at almost exactly the projected salary cap for 2018, 101 million. However, we still have one more big move to make. We will choose to re sign injured big man Demarcus Cousins, and pray to God that he is able to make a full recovery from his achilles injury. Although coming back from an achilles injury is no easy task especially for a guy as big as Demarcus, he has a couple of things going for him in a major way. First of all, Cousins is still young at just 27 years old. Next and perhaps more importantly, Cousins doesn’t completely rely on his athleticism like some other big men in the league. Even if he loses a step after the injury, it won’t change his ridiculous shooting and general scoring ability for a guy of that size. Although signing Cousins to a likely max deal this summer is one hell of a gamble, we don’t really have a choice. Due to the fact that he was already a member of the Pelicans, we can go over the cap to sign Cousins, and create our big 3.
So our starting five would consist of Cousins, Davis, LeBron, Solomon Hill, and Jrue Holiday. This is a very intimidating starting 5 to say the least, but the issue with this team is ultimately going to be the bench. Before making any moves, we only have 3 guys off the bench who are capable of contributing in any way whatsoever. First, we have Darius Miller, a 6 foot 8 small forward who shoots the 3 at a 42% clip while playing solid defense. Then there’s Ian Clark, a meh journeyman shooting guard who isn’t particularly good at anything. Lastly, there is Cheick Diallo, a young power forward who doesn’t offer much offensively but averages 12 boards and a block per 36 minutes. Although the bench isn’t going to need to play too many minutes due to that absurd starting 5, they become very important when you think about Cousins’ situation. Best case scenario is that he comes back roughly a year from right now, so the Pelicans would play most of the 2018 regular season without him. That means that we are going to need some major contributors from the bench, and right now we have 3 if we are being incredibly generous. That is why we need to bring in a guy who can really bolster the scoring off the bench with our midlevel taxpayers exception in Nick Young. Even though I’m not a fan of his off the court antics, Young can light it up from deep, and give us some much needed shooting off the bench. He is also good enough a player that he can slot into the starting lineup when Cousins is out to start the season. So now our roster is made up of Cousins, Davis, LeBron, Solomon Hill, Jrue Holiday, Nick Young, Darius Miller, Ian Clark, and Cheick Diallo. This is not a deep team to say the least, especially with Cousins out, but it is the best we can do due to the crazy amount of money being given to the starting 5.
Speaking of that starting 5 however, I do think that it could contend with Golden State for the best in the league, when Cousins is back obviously. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Solomon Hill’s game, he in my opinion is exactly the guy LeBron needs opposite him on the wing. He is a 6 foot 7 small forward who plays very solid defense and can shoot the 3 not great, but well enough that the defense will actually have to cover him. The defense however is the biggest reason why I love the idea of him playing with LeBron. As we all saw last year in the Finals, LeBron was gassed every single game. This was due to the fact that he had to carry his team offensively on one end, and then match up against probably the most dynamic scorer in basketball on the other end. It was just too much to ask of LeBron at this point in his career. With Hill in the fold however, LeBron won’t have to cover Durant, as Hill matches up pretty well with him from a physical standpoint. There is also the fact that if Hill is giving it his all every single possession and focusing solely on shutting down Durant, he could make things very tough for KD. I am not a huge advanced statistics guy, but Hill currently has a defensive win shares value of 2.3, and if you are like me and have absolutely no idea what that stat means, don’t worry because I’ll break it down for you in the best way I know how. Draymond Green has a defensive win shares value of 2.8. So basically this means that according to this stat, Hill is just a little bit worse than Green, a guy who has won defensive player of the year. While I’m not saying Hill is going to be as good as Green, he is clearly a plus defender, and that is the major takeaway here. Although Durant would still get his, LeBron would be fresh on the other side of the court, something that he definitely couldn’t say last year. Pairing LeBron with another big wing who can play solid defense is so important at this stage in his career, and that is exactly what the Pelicans would be able to do. There is also the fact that Hill is only 25 years old, and still has plenty of room for growth. Seeing and defending the best player in the world in practice everyday should help him improve tremendously as a defender. Hell, he might even get that 3 point percentage up a bit. The bottom line here is that Hill would make a great 5th guy in that starting 5.
As for the other non big 3 member in the starting 5, Jrue Holiday, I also think that he would be a great fit. As he’s proven this year due to the fact that he’s had to play next to ball dominant Rajon Rondo, Holiday can excel off the ball to say the least. He is incredibly skilled as a passer, an okay 3 point shooter, and has actually progressed to the point where he is averaging over 25 points per game this season. In terms of defensive win shares, Holiday is down to 1.9 after posting a number of 2.6 last year. In my opinion, the decrease is due to his increase in volume at the offensive end. With LeBron on the fold however, Holiday would be able to concentrate more on playing elite defensively, and that number would go back up in the neighborhood of 2.6, a value that is very good to say the least as I discussed in the last paragraph. So to review, the Pelicans get a very good all around player in Holiday who can thrive in an off the ball type of role, the role he will ultimately have with LeBron in the fold. Holiday would basically serve as a super sized version of what Mario Chalmers was on all those great Heat Teams. Holiday would lock down the opposing team’s best guard, bring the ball up, hit some 3s, and be just an all around phenomenal contributor to the cause.
The thing that is so wild about this starting 5 is that I’ve said so many great things about these 2 guys so far, and we haven’t even gotten to the big 3 yet! Cousins’ greatness should absolutely speak for itself, but due to the fact that he has been trapped on awful teams for most of his career, I feel like the average fan doesn’t realize just how special the guy is. Before he got hurt this season, Cousins was averaging 25 points on nearly 50% shooting, 12 boards, 5.5 assists, and almost 2 blocks a game in only 36 minutes per game. These stats aren’t just the numbers worthy of going to an All Star Game. These stats were giving Cousins Fans a legitimate argument to place him firmly in the MVP Discussion! The bottom line is that Cousins was absolutely filthy this season, and would be great at the 5 for this team when healthy. The key part of that statement however is when healthy. As I mentioned earlier, Cousins went down with a torn achilles in late January and will be back approximately a year from now if everything goes according to plan in terms of his rehab. Although I like to take the optimistic view when looking at this kind of thing, coming back from an achilles injury is no easy task. It has basically ended the careers of many great players throughout the history of the league, including Kobe Bryant, who never looked like the same guy after the injury, going from averaging 27 points per game to retiring just 3 forgettable seasons later. However, Cousins is definitely younger than most of the guys who have been ruined by this injury, and as I mentioned earlier, it won’t be too big a deal if Cousins loses a step physically. He would still be a great defender, rebounder, and scorer, and a great guy to have on your team.
Last but absolutely not least, there is Anthony Davis, a guy who I think should actually win MVP this year. Even after losing Cousins to injury, the Pelicans sit at 4th in an absolutely loaded Western Conference. A huge reason for that is due to the fact that Anthony Davis has been absolutely unstoppable for the entire season, especially after Cousins went down. Davis is scoring 28 points, grabbing over 11 boards, and blocking 2 shots on average this season. the thing that is crazy about his numbers however is the fact that he is averaging 28 on a stupid 53 percent from the field. If you aren’t convinced of just how dominant of a player Davis is, just look at what he did against the poor Phoenix Suns in late February. Davis scored an absurd 53 points on 55 percent shooting while grabbing 18 boards and blocking 5 shots! He absolutely took over that game and it was amazing to watch. If you somehow aren’t impressed with that performance alone, keep in mind that it was part of a 9 game stretch where he scored over 40 in 5 of the 9 games. In other words, Davis is a truly unstoppable force at both ends of the floor. He is one of the best rim protectors in the league, and is also capable of scoring at will. The crazy thing is that we still haven’t seen his prime as he is only 24 years old! It feels like Davis has been around forever, but he is still so damn young. He definitely has a ton of room to grow as a player, and I think it is an absolute lock that he will win not 1 but several MVPs before it is all said and done. It is honestly terrifying to think about just how good the guy can become.
If you look at the defensive metrics for Cousins and Davis, them being on the same team is just not fair for the opposition. Davis ranks in the top 20 of the league in terms of defensive rating, not too shabby to say the least. Pairing him with Cousins, who sits at 11, in the front court is an absolutely horrifying tandem to say the least. Pairing these 2 guys with LeBron however makes this quite possibly the best defensive front court we have ever seen in the NBA! Factoring in that they will be starting with Holiday and Hill means that these Pelicans will have 5 elite or borderline elite defenders on the court when their starting lineup is on the floor! This is something we haven’t seen since LeBron’s Miami Teams. When they were trotting a lineup of Bosh, Battier, LeBron, Wade, and Chalmers out there night in and night out, it made things incredibly difficult for their opposition. There wasn’t 1 weak link to expose, 1 matchup to exploit, and this made it borderline impossible for teams to score in bunches against them. That being said, I honestly think that this Pelicans team would be even better defensively than that Miami Team. They would just be so big with their smallest guy being the 6-4 Holiday. Hill at the 2 would also be devastating for certain teams who feature a smaller 2 guard. In terms of their rim protection, I feel like every team in the league would be terrified to go into the paint with 3 legit shot blockers lurking, ready to humiliate you. Their rebounding would also be ridiculous, as everyone on the floor would be a plus rebounder at worst. The bottom line is that this team would be absurd defensively, and you know what they say, defense wins championships.
Although the best part of this team would be their defensive prowess, they would also be great on the offensive end of the floor. They would be incredibly difficult to account for defensively due to the fact that everyone on their starting 5 is at worst a respectable 3 point shooter. There is also the fact that you’d need 3 elite, big defenders to cover LeBron, Cousins, and Davis, something that I don’t think any team in the NBA has. In a league where small ball has taken over, this team would be huge, and it would be a problem for everyone else. Just think of what they would look like offensively from the Warriors’ perspective this season. So you have Zaza trying to cover Cousins, which he won’t be able to do well by himself. Then you have Green trying to cover Davis, and while Green is definitely a great defender, he is going to have a ton of trouble stopping Davis due to the height disadvantage. Then you have Durant vs LeBron, where the pendulum will swing much further in LeBron’s direction due to the fact that he has Hill doing his dirty work on the defensive end. So all the Pelicans would have to do is post up any of these 3 matchups, and just let their guy go to work. The Warriors wouldn’t even be able to trap or bring a double without leaving a respectable 3 point shooter wide open. You also have 3 elite passers out of the post as your post up guys here, so there wouldn’t even be a ton of turnovers. The bottom line is that these guys would be a throwback of a team to say the least, and I don’t think that anyone else in the NBA would be able to defend them possession after possession.
In terms of who the hell is going to play off the bench, it is going to be very important in the regular season, but not so critical come playoff time when Cousins is healthy. All of these 5 starters are high volume guys, all capable of playing heavy minutes especially in the playoffs when you have days off between games. That being said, we are going to conservatively say that each member of the starting 5 will play 36 minutes a game. Due to the fact that an NBA Game is 48 minutes, the bench will only need to play 60 minutes each game! Nick Young is clearly their 6th man, so let’s say that he gets around 30 minutes per game. So the questionable bench that I discussed earlier only has to account for 30 minutes between 3 guys, and due to the fact that 2 of them are young, promising players, I would expect at least one of them to improve to the point where they are a solid piece of the bench. Although running a 7 to 8 man rotation absolutely isn’t ideal in the regular season, it is something that can be done and done well come playoff time when you have the right guys in your starting lineup, and the Pelicans certainly do. And honestly, the playoffs would really be the only thing that matters for this team. Due to the fact that they would quite possibly be the best defensive team of all time, they would be very tough to beat in a 7 game series even as a road team. Shooting and offense can come and go in a playoff series, but elite defensive teams stay elite game to game no matter what the venue is. It is because of this phenomenon that they Pelicans wouldn’t have anything to worry about if they entered the playoffs even as low as say the 5 seed, something that absolutely wouldn’t happen even in a loaded Western Conference. Hell, they are the 4 seed right now and are without Cousins, LeBron, and Hill! The bottom line is that this team would be absolutely lethal on both ends of the court, even though they’d have limited depth.
Now, we are going to take a little bit of a break and talk about the reasons outside of basketball why LeBron would want to go to New Orleans. The first thing that jumps out to me is the owner of the Pelicans, Tom Benson. As recently as 2011, the Pelicans were an absolute mess from an ownership perspective, and actually didn’t even have an owner. That all changed when Benson, the owner of the Saints, bought the team in 2012. Benson has been the owner of the NFL’s New Orleans Saints since 1985, so he had plenty of experience with both the city and owning a major sports franchise. In my opinion, his patience with the Saints throughout years has been very impressive. Although they won a Super Bowl in 2009, the Saints have been pretty unsuccessful after that behind the Super Bowl winning tandem of Sean Payton and Drew Brees. Before the start of the 2017 season, many in New Orleans were saying that it was time to fire Payton and move on from Brees, but Benson trusted the guys who won him a title. He was ultimately rewarded with a great season in 2017, but that part of this shouldn’t really matter to LeBron. The part that should matter is that he proved to be a stable owner in a time where he could have been unstable. If Payton and Brees were with the Browns, my guess is that they would have been fired/ traded. Benson however decided to show restraint and give his guys an extra year. This organizational stability would be incredibly nice for LeBron to have, as who wants to be in a situation with unstable ownership? I should also mention that as of this writing, Mr. Benson is still in the ICU after being admitted 2 weeks ago with flu like symptoms. Although the ownership situation would definitely be in flux if the unthinkable happens, we aren’t going to even talk about it yet. So thoughts and prayers up to Mr. Benson, and I hope that he makes a speedy recovery and is ready to sign LeBron this summer!
Aside from the solid ownership situation, LeBron would have to be very happy about taking his family to the city of New Orleans. Everyone knows the city’s reputation for being an incredibly good time filled with great food, drink, and all around entertainment. To convince himself for sure that going to New Orleans would be a great move from a day to day standpoint however, all LeBron would have to do is look at how the city has embraced their quarterback Drew Brees. When Drew signed with the Saints, I’m sure he was a little bit scared to go off to a new place. After winning a Super Bowl and being a great guy both on and off the field however, the city has truly embraced him as a local hero. While a lot of that has to do with his part in helping give a struggling city hope after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, it proved that the fans in New Orleans were incredibly supportive. There is also the fact that LeBron is looking to be in a good position to make money in retirement, and Brees has definitely put himself in that position in New Orleans. For those who don’t know, Brees took the Jimmy John’s Sandwiches he loved at Purdue and brought them to New Orleans simply because he wanted to eat them himself. What ended up happening however is that Jimmy John’s took off in Louisiana, and Brees now owns a sandwich making empire down south because of it. The bottom line is that LeBron could definitely do something similar, taking a business he loves in Cleveland and brining it to Louisiana.
In terms of his family loving being in New Orleans, again look no further than the family of Brees. Brees has a wife and kids, and they by all accounts seem to be incredibly happy there. Although I don’t know enough about New Orleans and the surrounding area to support that with actual facts and personal opinions about the region like I did Boston in the last blog, one sign that they love New Orleans definitely jumps out to me. Although Brees is hitting free agency this season after a great campaign, he seems to have no intention to even hear teams out in terms of luring him away. Now while I’m sure Brees wanting to stay is a factor in this, I’m sure that his wife and family have also had their opinions taken into consideration. If they wanted to leave, I’m sure that Brees would at least agree to hear other teams out in terms of his free agency. Due to the fact that this isn’t the case, I get the sense that his family loves New Orleans and his no desire to go somewhere new. Last but certainly not least, the weather in New Orleans would definitely be a huge plus when compared to Cleveland. I’m sure that the brutal, dark, gloomy, cold, winters in Cleveland aren’t fun for LeBron, because the Boston winters aren’t for me either! In a perfect world, I’m sure that he’d rather be in a city where the lowest average temperature by month is 62 in February, aka shorts weather in Cleveland.
Alright, so enough talking about how great New Orleans is, and let’s wrap this thing up. So the bottom line here is that LeBron should seriously consider going to New Orleans. The city is great, has a history of welcoming in free agent stars with open arms (Brees), and has a roster that seems built for LeBron. Seeing just how good a starting 5 of Cousins, Davis, LeBron, Hill, and Holiday could be would just be unbelievable to say the least. Even after rationally thinking about the seemingly absurd claim I made earlier that this team would be the best defensive team in NBA History, I stand by it. They would have ridiculous rim protection, and large, elite to nearly elite defenders who can guard multiple positions. In a league where pick and roll defense is incredibly important, 6,4 Jrue Holiday would be their biggest weakness in terms of switches, and he isn’t too much of a weakness due to his incredible length and ability to poke the ball away. This team would even fit the mold perfectly on the offensive end, as I believe their best method of attack would be post ups and slowing the game down. Teams like the Rockets are trying to beat the Warriors at their own game, and that is why they will ultimately come up short. To beat the Warriors, you have to make them play your game and not the other way around, and this Pelicans team would absolutely do that. Due to them grinding out both offensive and defensive possessions, they could make the high flying Warriors offense sputter, and make them score tough buckets in the half court instead of giving them easy hoops in transition. The big weakness of this team however is their durability, as 4 out of their 5 starters will have had missed significant time throughout their careers. That being said, if this team is healthy, I would absolutely pick them in a 7 game series over the Warriors. Defense wins Championships, and it would be great to see a defensive minded team win a title again. Fortunately for everyone out there who is sick of the Warriors like myself, that is exactly what this Pelicans Team would do if LeBron decided to come to town.
Again, this blog got away from me to say the least, as I became infatuated with the idea of LeBron in New Orleans, typing word after word, proving that it wasn’t just my Boston Bias as some of you may have thought! I was actually planning on talking about 2 potential destinations in this blog, but the second is going to have to wait for next time due to the fact that the Pelicans Section was so long. So the bottom line is that we have 2 teams down and 4 to go, so don’t touch that dial because the rest of these are going to be just as fun as the first 2!
nbanflnobody 