Anthony Davis Never Had the Squad Zion Williamson Already Has in NOLA

Five months ago, the New Orleans Pelicans were in disarray.

Franchise cornerstone Anthony Davis had requested a trade. The Pelicans refused to comply ahead of the trade deadline, which created an awkward situation for the final few months of the regular season.

That's all in the past now. Davis is headed to the Los Angeles Lakers, while No. 1 pick overall Zion Williamson will take his place as the Pelicans' new cornerstone.

After struggling to build around Davis during his seven seasons in New Orleans, can the Pelicans get it right this time with Zion?

If the past few months are any indication, it seems as though they've learned some valuable lessons.

In mid-February, the Pelicans fired longtime general manager Dell Demps. Two months later, they hired David Griffin to take over as their executive vice president of basketball operations, which began a cascade of organizational changes.

Griffin urged team owner Gayle Benson to invest millions in the team's practice facility, according to Andrew Lopez of the Times-Picayune. The Pelicans brought in Phoenix Suns longtime athletic trainer Aaron Nelson, hired Brooklyn Nets assistant general manager Trajan Langdon as their GM and brought in Swin Cash as their vice president of basketball operations/team development.

And then they won the 2019 NBA draft lottery, giving them the rights to Williamson.

They'll now have to avoid the same mistakes they made around Davis over the past half-decade.

The Pelicans had plenty of opportunities to build around Davis, but they were undone by injuries, overpays (Omer Asik, Alexis Ajinca, Solomon Hill) and a failure to establish a winning and sustainable culture. 

During Davis' tenure, the Pelicans traded away most of their draft picks. The only two who saw the floor were Austin Rivers (No. 10, 2012) and Buddy Hield (No. 6, 2016), who combined to start a paltry 70 games in New Orleans. 

Jonathan Bachman/Associated Press

Demps gave Davis plenty of high-upside teammates such as Tyreke Evans, Jrue Holiday, Al-Farouq Aminu, Eric Gordon and Ryan Anderson, but he too often surrounded them with mediocre role players like Brian Roberts, Lou Amundson, Luke Babbit, Norris Cole, Roger Mason and Anthony Morrow. 

Griffin won't make that mistake, as he emphasized after selecting Williamson.

"So again, I want to keep reiterating the human part of this is at least as big as the on-court part. And all of you have very high on-court expectations. Look, this is not somebody who's supposed to be the savior of this franchise. That's not what this is. This is a 19-year-old kid who's going to spend this year learning how to play winning NBA basketball." 

The Pelicans' roster overhaul began with the Davis trade, which brought in high-upside players like Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram and Josh Hart. However, Griffin didn't stop there.

He acquired multiple future draft picks in the Davis deal, including No. 4 overall this year, which he later flipped to the Atlanta Hawks for Nos. 8 (Jaxson Hayes) and 17 (Nickeil Alexander-Walker). Griffin also dumped Solomon Hill's unwieldy contract on the Hawks in that draft-night trade, allowing him to attack free agency as promised. 

"David Griffin is very good at his job," former Hornets and Pelicans television color analyst Antonio Daniels said on the Bird Calls Podcast. "When you are looking at building a team, there are certain characteristics that you want your team to display. You want athleticism, size, physicality, versatility and you want a mix of youth and experience in your locker room."

In free agency, the Pelicans quickly came to terms with JJ Redick on a two-year, $26.5 million deal, according to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski. They've also agreed to trade a pair of second-round picks to the Utah Jazz for Derrick Favors, per Brett Martel of the Associated Press.

The second-fastest offense from last season will now have a little bit of everything.

Holiday averaged a career-best 21.2 points, 7.7 assists and 5.0 rebounds this past season. He'll soon play alongside Ball, who should create plenty of lob opportunities for both Williamson and Hayes. Ingram, who chipped in a career-best 18.3 points, 5.1 rebounds and 3.0 assists with the Lakers this past season, will slot in at small forward.

The Pelicans also now boast a wealth of deep-range gunners.

Redick, a career 41.3 percent shooter from deep, will help space the floor and keep movement fluid on offense. He joins E'Twaun Moore, who drilled 43.2 percent of his three-pointers last season. 

The Pelicans also added Nicolo Melli on a two-year, $8 million deal, according to Wojnarowski. The 6'9" forward shot 42.1 percent on 311 three-point attempts in Euroleague play over the past four seasons and provides size off the bench similar to former Pelicans forward Nikola Mirotic. New Orleans also brought back sharpshooting small forward Darius Miller on a two-year, $14.25 million deal, per Wojnarowski.

Ball, Holiday and Josh Hart may form the best defensive backcourt in the NBA. Ball and Holiday each finished in the top 10 among point guards in defensive real plus-minus , according to ESPN.com, while Hart finished third among all shooting guards. Favors, meanwhile, finished fourth among power forwards and was 18th across all positions.

With such a deep supporting cast, Williamson doesn't need to take over as the franchise savior right away.

Nuccio DiNuzzo/Associated Press

"This is Jrue Holiday's team," Griffin said on draft night. "And when we made the trade that we made, or are working to complete rather, with a certain player who used to be here with Jrue. We were very cognizant of the fact that this is Jrue Holiday's team."

The Pelicans have built one of the brightest front offices in the NBA. They have a young core of players to grow and run alongside Williamson. They have plenty of future financial flexibility and draft capital stashed away.

It's still early, but it appears as though the Pelicans won't make the same mistakes building around Williamson that they did with Davis.