Let’s just take a quick look at Tankathon just for reference. The New Orleans Pelicans, Utah Jazz, and the Washington Wizards all got jumped to fall out of the top four in the draft. After long and painful seasons, this was not the result they were hoping for.
New Orleans fell all the way back to the seventh pick. After coming in with the fourth-best odds at landing Cooper Flagg, that is a stumble. And not even having a top-four pick (something they had a 48.1 percent chance to lan) makes their trade package to try and add another piece that much less valuable. The draft was bad for New Orleans. Bad bad bad.
I know how this goes. The Pistons had the worst record the year Wemby was drafted. It’s not fun.
But all hope is not lost.
Even if they can't trade for Giannis, the Pelicans could benefit from a Bucks rebuild
Sometimes even worse things happen to other people. The Milwaukee Bucks are arguably in a more depressing position than the Pelicans are right now. I’ll leave it to fans of either team to decide which situation is worse.
The Bucks are facing the potential loss of a true franchise icon in Giannis Antetokounmpo. For the first time (like frfr, not as an ‘ESPN has nothing to talk about. How do we get Giannis on the Cowboys, Pat?’ type beat), Giannis is considering leaving for a different team. Giannis wants another championship. If he doesn’t see a way forward in the immediate future, his immediate future may well be on another team.
And if that does happen, suddenly New Orleans’ 2026 and 2027 pick swaps with Milwaukee suddenly become a lot more enticing. A rebuilding Milwaukee team could want those back, or they could be moved in a deal that includes Zion or doesn’t.
Regarding that, per the New York Times article above, Zion being at the lottery for the Pelicans “... was the strongest signal yet that the Pelicans and the best player on the roster remain aligned as they enter a new phase.”
Cool. A Zion trade maybe isn’t happening. Where they decide to go from here matters a lot less than the fact they could suddenly be back in the black.
It doesn’t make up for the results of the lottery, but at least it’s something. You have to hold on to whatever hope you can as a fan. The hope is part of the fun.