On Wednesday, New Orleans Pelicans general manager Dell Demps held a press conference evaluating the season and talks about their plans for the offseason.
I took a lot of notes during the press conference, and after the press conference had finished, I was as excited for the offseason as ever.
Still Behind the "Core"
Dell Demps started the press conference by saying he is still 100 percent behind the core and thinks they got a large enough sample to be happy with last year's offseason.
Although Demps did say he would of liked a larger sample to evaluate, but due to injuries this was not the case. Although Demps said he was 100 percent behind the core, he said that he is going to be looking at every single trade he can to make the team better and said only Anthony Davis is untradable.
Now, we can also assume that Jrue Holiday is not on the chopping block because he has a great contract and is one of the three pieces of the core—Anthony Davis, Jrue Holiday and Tyreke Evans (although Tyreke is the most replaceable out of the three).
Development and Team Improvment
Demps also stated in his press conference that he really likes the guys the Pelicans have on the team currently, but obviously knows the team needs to improve vastly.
The Pelicans do tend to work more on developing players and then trading them for higher valuable assets (Example of this: Gustavo Ayon was signed for free by NOLA, worked on his game then traded for Ryan Anderson, which is an upgrade).
This could be used in the off-season again. This year, the Pelicans have signed and worked on multiple players. Alexis Ajinca and Luke Babbitt were both signed from Europe and have both proven to be solid role players in the NBA this year.
On the topic of improvement, Demps noted he has been very happy with how the staff have helped Jeff Withey this season and believes with another offseason, the center can really contribute to the team.
He also made it clear that he is really happy with Austin Rivers and Darius Miller, and thinks they are both two very good two way players with still a lot of time to improve more. Demps also noted he really wants to keep Anthony Morrow.
Two of the Best Things Pelicans Fans Could Hear
Two of the best things Pelicans fans could of heard were also said.
The first was that everyone on the roster will be healthy for training camp. Two, that Demps said he is looking to be creative and aggressive this offseason in looking for talent to surround the franchise player Anthony Davis around.
Other Key Notes
- Demps made it clear that he liked Pierre Jackson and that he is definitely an asset for the team.
- His relationship with head coach Monty Williams is fine.
- He wants to not only make the playoffs next year, but have a deep run.
- He also says that financially, the Pelicans are in good shape.
