Draft Bronny James to get LeBron on the New Orleans Pelicans with Zion Williamson?

Draft Bronny James to get LeBron on the New Orleans Pelicans with Zion Williamson?

the funniest thing the Pelicans could do would be to draft bronny James son of LeBron James but would it actually make basketball sense especially if you could get LeBron too there’s more to it than you might think it’s the Monday episode of Locked on Pelicans let’s go you are locked on Pelicans your daily New Orleans Pelicans podcast part of the locked on podast cats Network your team every day welcome to another edition of locked on Pelicans the daily podcast covering your favorite team the New Orleans Pelicans in NBA part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day available wherever you get your podcast and available on YouTube I’m your host Pelin Insider credential member of the media Jake Madison at Nola Jake on Twitter here with y’all on this Monday kicking off tipping off I should say a week’s worth of shows here we got an interesting one looking at bronny James in this draft LeBron James as well you’re probably thinking this is just a meme show Jake’s doing it for the jokes there’s more to it than you might think particularly when it comes to bronny James and it’s going to lead us to a larger discussion around the value of second round picks which is really important because by the way the Pelicans don’t have any at least not until 2030 today’s episode of Locked on Pelicans is brought to you by prize picks the easiest and most exciting way to play play daily fantasy sports go to price.com lockon NBA and use code all lowercase locked on NBA for a first deposit match up to $100 and of course thank you for making lock on Pelicans your first listen today and every day we the number one Pelicans podcast coming to you like nobody else does looking at the draft stuff the trads the coaching future all of that here on lockdown Pelicans subscribe wherever you get your podcast join over 10,000 Pelicans fans on YouTube as well so let’s get into this one because this isn’t a joke drafting bronny James yeah Do It screw at the Lakers bring LeBron here he said he wants to play with his son at some point maybe you can sign him on a veteran minimum deal or something like that let’s PP the breaks on some of that we’ll get to the LeBron talk in a second here but let’s look at Brony James when you look at his numbers from college they were not good not the type of thing that says that he’s going to get drafted just 4.8 points 2.8 rebounds 2.1 assists in 25 games that’s not an ideal situation for the player and then when you look at him in the combine it’s a little bit of a question of why he was one of 78 players invited to be there and then they did the measurables and he measured at 6’1 A2 without shoes he does have a 6′ 7 and a/4 inch wingspan that’s not bad but those measurables at least the height kind of undersized a little bit we talked about the other day how Rob Dillingham came in at 61 and that’s not what you want from a guard at the NBA level especially one being drafted potentially in the top five so is this just a guy that shouldn’t be in the NBA is he just here because of his famous dad and I think once you start to watch him in the scrimmages hear him talk and look at some of the other tests and drills that he went through like no I I think he has a place in the NBA and you can kind of really start to see and he’s impressing a little bit at the combine start with this you know he says all of the right things this is someone who’s been in his dad’s Shadow his whole life there’s been immense scrutiny put on him pressure a microscope and he’s never folded to all of that pressure and is trying to just go out and kind of be his own person and he said that at the combine that you know no one no one had ever asked him about playing with his dad and he’s like if it happens it’s great but basically like I just want to be Brony James and make it to the NBA in whatever role that that’s going to be he’s not coming in expecting to be as good as his dad no one’s going to be so I think he has kind of the right mentality with everything here and when you look at the other tools that he does have despite being a little bit under size they’re pretty good you know he did second best in the shooting drill going 19 of 25 from three from five different spots on the floor when you look at some of the agility drills and things that he’s done his vertical leap was 40.5 that was the third best score of the combine these tools are there and then when you watched him in some of the scrimmages I think is when it was really kind of eye openening this wasn’t a guy trying to take over this wasn’t a guy trying to take over or be the guy on the team be the man right be the leader he was just trying to like fit in and do well and to play his role and I loved that I loved that about him in all of this when you look at projecting him out no he’s not a top five pick he’d be a borderline first round pick at best but you can see him being a very good role player in the NBA not a starter but one of those solid role players who understands and knows their job think about that Josh Hart mentality whatever you need him to do he’s just going to go and do he knows his place in the hierarchy he knows that he’s got to make extra passes right kind of move with purpose just fit into what’s working and that’s how you carve a place out in the NBA look at nikil Alexander Walker finally understanding this at the NBA level and having a role at times starting with the Minnesota Timberwolves but he’s a role player and it took him a minute to kind of accept that mentality and once he did that is where he really started to kind of carve out a career not everyone’s going to be a starter not everyone’s going to be an Allstar but bronnie James kind of coming in with that role player mentality of like I’ll do what’s best for the team I just want to be here in the NBA I like that I like that the measurables do seem very good on him other than the height he seems to have the right just like good head on his shoulders right and that probably comes from being he couldn’t screw up you know High School College if he did anything wrong anything wrong I was going to be all over the news right all over the news and he didn’t and I think he’s learned a lot from that in following kind of the footsteps of his dad and I think that’s a really great thing to be perfectly honest so you know drafting him like screw the Lakers kind of take him away from LeBron like I get the jokes don’t get me wrong but I do think there’s more basketball Merit to selecting him in the draft not not with the 17th pick not with the 21st pick potentially I mean I guess we’ll see how the rest of this draft and combine shakes out but there’s some Merit towards drafting him likely in the second round more on that in a moment here the other part of it is could you get LeBron if you do get him I don’t think so LeBron’s going to opt out of his deal and who knows what might happen maybe the Lakers go a weird Direction with their head coaching search and we talked about that on Friday and LeBron hates it but overall I don’t see him leaving the Lakers it sounds like he’s got two years left maybe then a third you could get him but that wouldn’t be three for three years and so that’d be investing a lot into Brony James if you don’t like him as a prospect to get you know a very old LeBron James at that point in time who’s still probably going to be a very good basketball player but not at the level that he is right now I don’t think so I don’t think there’s really much to it I think LeBron stays with the Lakers no matter what but it would be fun to mess with them and Pelicans fans would be able to taunt Lakers fans with that’s the case for sure for the next couple of weeks with the draft being before free agency and all that so you never know but no I don’t think it’ll end up happening but I do think there’s Merit towards drafting bronny James so I mention the second round palons don’t have a pick in the second round this year or in like future years let’s look at that because that’s something they might need to address especially during the regular season and I’m going to tell you why that’s important coming up here next in today’s episode of Locked on Pelicans today’s episode of Locked on Pelicans is brought to you by prize picks America’s number one fantasy sports app they have over 3 million members because it’s the easiest and most exciting way to get in on the action while watching your favorite sports and players it’s really simple you pick more or less on the staff projection for two or more players then you watch the winnings roll in so get in on the playoff action and win up to 100 times your money on prize picks as you and the world’s best players take the game to a whole new level during basketball’s postseason and you heard me right 100 times your money on prize picks and you can do it with as little as four correct picks you can turn $10 into $1,000 with basketball Hockey baseball entries today on prize 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don’t give you what you want to know right go to the free 247 sports streaming Channel lockdown sports today lockdown sports today brings you the can’t miss analysis opinions and news streaming 24/7 on YouTube or the free Amazon Fire TV channels app part of the lock on podcast Network your team every day and of course make locked on Pelicans your first listen today and every day if you’re an everyday or let me know in the comments down below do you support drafting bronny James even if you know you can’t get LeBron with him so I would potentially take a flight depending on how the rest of the draft shakes out with with him in in the second round I like that idea I i’ see a role player in him to be perfectly honest with you and this team you can never have enough of those guys you don’t want a whole team made up of them but around someone who just understands that he needs to fit around Zion would be a great thing you get that cheap in the second round there’s value to be had there and I think Brony James could really be it so there’s Merit to it but you don’t take him in the first round you take him in the second round the problem is the Pelin don’t have a second round pick this year don’t have a pick in the second round next year they don’t have a pick the year after that they don’t have a second round pick till 2023 or till 2030 so a number of years from now that’s a problem second round picks have gone up in value the past couple of use when I first started doing this and I’ve been covering the team for like 14 years now almost 15 years it’s kind of crazy how long I’ve been doing this for and in the beginning especially when I was starting out and you’re kind of like learning value things like that learning about the NBA more and more and more and you gain a lot of insight to it second round picks didn’t have a ton of value like they really didn’t for a long long time they were the the actual equivalent of like a a 10-day contract guy someone taken in the latter half of the second round usually was going to be like a 10day cont contract guy that played with like five NBA teams on 10day contracts and then you never heard from them again there’s just wasn’t much value there there’s certainly exceptions Nicola yic right the greatest second round pick ever Draymond Green a very good second round pick but those are moonshots that you just never truly see happening all the time right herb Jones is still very much an outlier second round has gotten better second round has gotten better it’s producing more and more players and as you have more g-league teams too there’s value to be had there to filling out those rosters and taking a shot on a guy and if it doesn’t work out it doesn’t work out it was a second round pick but you’ve seen second round picks increase in value for trades particularly as teams are navigating you know the first apron the second apron go look up the collective bargaining agreement the CBA to learn a little bit more about those and we’ll probably talk about them on an episode of lockon pelicans the the need for those second round picks to fill out your roster when you’re an expensive team is is really important or just to facilitate a trade players can be traded now for second round picks that are useful players because they just don’t fit what that team is doing or they don’t want to pay those guys or what have you so you’ve seen player or or just to dump bad contracts right Kye Lewis Jr was traded with the one remaining second round pick the Pelicans had they had to spend four second round picks to dump Devonte Graham which was a smart salary cap move for what it would have done to them this season last season as well all of those are really important things to to kind of look at with this team so say they’re pushing you know the luxury tax or in a bad salary cap situation they don’t have second round picks to dump a guy you know maybe that’s a Larry n Jr maybe that’s someone else they don’t really have tons of bad contracts on this team which is good but you need those second round picks to make that deal done it would have been tougher to trade Kyra Lewis Jr if you didn’t have that or say you’re a team like the Phoenix Suns you know you need to add one or two players to your team but you just don’t have money really trade second round picks for those guys you can do that and you can at least get a little bit of depth they got Ros Neil for a second round pick last year right like that’s a useful thing Pelicans don’t have that kind of ammunition they don’t have those kind of assets and I think that’s a bit of a problem going forward say you’re like one depth piece away from being a better team or a title Contender or something like that at the trade deadline next year are you going to trade a future first for that when you could trade a second you won’t you won’t make that deal and you’ll just go without the piece you need they need to find a way to acquire some second round picks and the blueprint is actually out there the Phoenix Suns did this with the Memphis Grizzlies where they traded a pick swap or two I forget what it was first round pick swaps with the Memphis Grizzlies for three second round picks they kind of took a future first round pick that who knows what it could be and traded it with the Memphis Grizzlies for three assets that you could use immediately it was a smart deal and I think it provided the blueprint for what New Orleans needs to do they have they own all of their own future draft picks they have a buck picker two as well you know use one of those don’t fully trade like an unprotected first round pick or anything like that for second round picks you know don’t trade a first round pick even if it’s top 15 protected for three second round picks trade a future pick swap with one of your picks to another team and acquire a bunch of second rounders real simple something like that is a move I think the Pelicans need to make to kind of replenish that second round pick not war chest but just have them you end up not using them it’s okay right if things go as play for New Orleans that pick swap doesn’t convey a pick swap is basically you saw it actually happen with the Bucks this year you one team gets the more favorable of the two picks the the Pelicans and Bucks make a trade and there’s a pick swap included in that and the Pelicans get the better of the two picks which actually happened this year which I thought was kind of funny so do that you know it meant a difference of like two draft spot spots that’s not that big of a deal to acquire a couple of second round picks that you can then use in other deals or to dump a bad contract you know imagine if getting Trey young to Jon Murray the difference was you need to include a second round pick that you don’t have in there you can’t miss out on some of these deals here there’s an opportunity cost with it without that so going and getting some second round picks I think would be of immense value to New Orleans you know I talked on Friday show a little bit about how they haven’t managed some of the draft picks and things like that the best I don’t think they’ve done a bad job by any means with that this is the one area that I think they’ve done not the best job with right trading a future first in that signing trade for Devonte Graham wasn’t great and then needing four draft picks to unload his contract wasn’t a good move that’s some of what I’m talking about when it comes to mismanagement and things like that having more second round picks would be immensely useful for this team look they’re not going to ever be a second apron team they’re probably not even going to be a first apron team but they they’re going to be in the luxury tax if they want to compete if they don’t it’s a larger discussion we’re going to need to have you know if you’re in the luxury text you need those second round picks to at least be like cheap options for you here or to duck out of the luxury text say there’s an opportunity that presents itself I liked the idea of trading Kyro Lewis Jr there was no point in paying the luxury tax season for Kyro Lewis Jr if it meant you would pay it in next in subsequent Seasons so if you end up in a situation like that so there’s an injury and they’re not going anywhere duck under the tax I get it it makes sense so having those second round picks is going to be important for that I’d like to see the Pelin make a deal that refreshes that second round pick asset I don’t know what word I’m using here for it so something to keep in mind if you see a trade like that that’s going to be a reason why the Pelicans did that so coming up next let’s look at the NBA as a whole or at least the western conference with some of these top teams the Denver Nuggets in mind in particular that’s coming up here next in today’s episode of lockd on pelicans and what the Pelicans kind of need to think about teams like that right now though I’m excited to tell you about FanDuel America’s number one sports book it’s winter take all time in the NBA and NHL and fuel’s giving you a shot to bring home a big win of your own because right Now new customers get $150 $150 in bonus Bets with any winning $5 bet that’s 150 bucks to bet on spreads money line player promps and more you’re watching the NBA Playoffs you want to make them more interesting bet on the spread bet on the money line take some of the player props Nicola yic to light up Rudy goar again you can do that we’ll talk more about yic in the next segment here visit fanduel.com locked on and make every playoff shot count that’s FanDuel / lockon you’re going to get 150 bucks in bonus Bets with any winning $5 bet visit FanDuel America’s number one sports book in the official sports book of locked on and thank you for making locked on Pelicans your first listen today and every day we are here Monday through Friday the number one Pelicans podcast covering everything you want to know about this Pelicans team Please Subscribe wherever you get your podcast join over 10,000 pelic fans on YouTube as well we’re not slowing down at all in the offseason after free agency we may drop to 3 days a week but I don’t even know if we’ll end up doing that if we’re just going to kind of keep five days a week going because I like talking with y’all if you want to join the community mock draft I will post the link on Twitter it’s a Google form just give me your name your email and that’s how we’ll be able to kind of get in contact with y’all to do this everyone’s going to get who wants to participate gets assigned a team whoever gets the first pick you make a pick and we just kind of go through no trades anything like that you just get assigned team you make the pick I’ll read the entries and everything off on a sh we’ll do a whole show or two about it as well so it’ll be a lot of fun so if you want to join in and kind of get involved with lockon Pelicans this is a really good way to do that so let’s switch gears from the draft for a minute here I want to look at the NBA as a whole because I I’ve been really really thinking about that game between the Denver Nuggets and the Minnesota Timberwolves where Nicola yic dropped 40 on Rudy goar and just looked Unstoppable R we talked about this a little bit during the live show last week too Rudy Rudy goberry is one of the best defenders in NBA history you don’t have to like him he can annoy you he annoys me right he’s overrated at times in certain things yes but the dude’s won four Defensive Player of the Year Awards there’s no doubting that he is one of the best defensive players ever and to see him just be reduced to Ash against Nicola yic was wild to me he he wasn’t playing bad defense at all he really wasn’t it was just joic is a is going to go down as a top 15 10 player of all time particularly if he wins another title and you know three-time League MVP and when he he just does things no one has done that was like a truly special performance from Nicola yic and it was only 40 points right you would have been like oh 60 then I’ll pay attention that was a special 40-point game that he had he threw in that third quarter when he just cooked Rudy goar cooked him cooked him didn’t do the same move twice literally just broke out everything and it was wild to watch impressive to watch when you’re building your team when you’re thinking about the Western Conference you’ve got to Factor someone like that in the the Denver Nuggets aren’t going anywhere anytime soon right that’s a team that looks Built For the Long Haul they have ownership that’s willing to pay good for them all of those things mean they’re not going anywhere any time soon and if they’re not going anywhere anytime soon if the Pelin are trying to compete right now too you need to also plan around them and I think that’s something that’s really important to do yic is how old by the way he’s 29 he’s like young still right he’ll be 30 next season PO he like recently turned 29 too that’s he’s not going anywhere right if you look at the Thunder and how young they are Shay gildas Alexander Chad hren in his second year jayd dub being young they’re not going anywhere anytime soon you need to plan your team building around some of these teams I think well you want to kind of go and impose your will and find what makes you a special team and I think the Pelicans are still kind of figuring that out a little bit other than just Zion Williamson but where’s your Edge what do you do about that sort of thing and I don’t know if they’ve truly figured that part out yet but you’ve also got a factor in Nicola yic Chet hren Victor wanyama is going to be a player you need to at least account for right not necessarily during the regular season you could lose all the games to them and still make the playoffs but if you’re going to want to win a title you’re going to have to play one of those teams it feels like in subsequent playoff years and that means you’ve got to face those guys you know Luca donich though I think the Pelicans have him kind of figured out pretty well with like herb Jones and stuff like that so you’ve got to factor that in and that might change how the Pelicans approach this off season a little bit you know I’ve said maybe you could do the center on the cheap and go for a guard right if you go for Trey young you’re not going to bring in Jared Allen too but if you know you’re going to need to go through yic Chad hren is it better to have that Center that can kind of handle those guys Zion’s not going to be able to do it you know you can’t keep uh Billy hernand Gomez Who whatever reason just lit up joic and could stop him on the team the whole year until the postseason right you need to kind of build a balanced roster and kind of lean into your strengths but also know what the strengths of other teams are too and know that yeah those teams are going to be there so does that change how you approach a Brandon Ingram trade knowing that Denver’s still going to be there that the Thunder are still going to be there even the Timberwolves probably AR going to blow it up right they’re going to keep cat they’re going to keep gobear they’re going to keep Anthony Edwards they’re going to keep doing what they’re doing now I think New Orleans matches up pretty well with them but you’ve got these other teams and how do you kind of like factor that in for everything and I think that’s something to kind of keep in mind when you’re coming up with trades for Brandon Ingram and it’s like Trey young cool okay but then you’re gonna have to go with Center on the cheap is that the way to go is that going to bounce you out of the playoffs because of joic would joic just do it anyway right that’s the other thing to kind of keep in mind if he’s cooking Rudy goar like that there ain’t no way anyone can guard him at all and sometimes that’s just the reality of the situation it’s not fun to kind of think like that but it is right if Denver just kind of now cruises to their second straight title after going down 02 because joic woke up I don’t know if there’s anything anyone can do so maybe you don’t need to kind of plan around that but that’s how kind of The Balancing Act with it do you plan around it or not or do you just lean more into your strengths that’s what makes this such an interesting and pivotal offseason I think for the New Orleans Pelicans as they start to try and figure all of that out as their kind of vision for the future the future itself becomes a little bit clearer and we can see it better and what the the glar needs are for this team what they need to do to try and improve in the directions that they need to go that’s why we’re going to be covering it all here unlocked on Pelicans part of the lock on podcast Network your team every day so that’s going to do it for this episode of Locked on Pelin the bronny James episode I never thought I would have been doing a show like this and then it turns out like his combine has been going well and you start to kind of like the player a little bit see what ends up happening with him no matter what it’s going to be kind of interesting so that’s going to do it for this episode of Locked on Pelicans I appreciate you all so much for watching please subscribe wherever you get your podcast join over 10,000 Pelicans fans on YouTube as always I’m your host Jake Madison at Nola Jake on Twitter and I’ll be back with y’all tomorrow

Bronny James might be the most scrutinized prospect in the NBA Draft because of his father LeBron James. Jake Madison looks at Bronny as an NBA prospect and answers the question if the New Orleans Pelicans should draft him. Could they actually get LeBron James to pair with Zion Williamson. If you don’t get LeBron does Bronny make sense for the Pels? Plus, what do the Pelicans need to do in the 2nd round of the draft?

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