(Photo: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports)
The 2019 NBA Draft class is full of promising prospects. A number of mock drafts have already pegged Zion Williamson to be the number one pick for the New Orleans Pelicans. However, an exciting aspect of this draft is whether the Pelicans can end up with Williamson's teammate from Duke, RJ Barrett.
The Pelicans is guaranteed to have the first and fourth pick for this year's draft. With Williamson and Barrett expected to be picked first and third, respectively. With regards to this, there are a number of reports claiming that the Pelicans front office is pulling some strings in order to bump up its fourth pick to third. While this seems pretty far-fetched, it is important to remember that the Pelicans just acquired a number of interesting assets following its blockbuster trade that sent Anthony Davis to the Los Angeles Lakers.
The trade with the Lakers gave the Pelicans this year's fourth pick along with Lonzo Ball, Josh Hart, Brandon Ingram, and two first round picks. Some pundits agree that the Pelicans is sitting on some serious assets following the Davis trade. The question now is whether they can put together an interesting enough package to convince the New York Knicks to pass on Barrett or trade the draft picks for them.
One interesting scenario here is that the Knicks can pick Barrett and the Pelicans can put together a package to trade him into the Pelicans immediately after draft night. The Knicks is in dire needs of a superstar following their decision to trade Kristaps Porzingis to the Dallas Mavericks, and they are eager to land a new a one upon which to build their core team.
Another scenario is for the Pelicans to convince the Memphis Grizzlies to pick Barrett and do the trade since the Grizzlies are slated to have the second pick of the night. There are a number of rumors claiming that the Grizzlies is not convinced that Ja Morant, who is projected to be the second overall pick, is a good fit to their system. If this is true, the Pelicans can put together a combination of players and a number of drafts they acquired from the Lakers to convince the Grizzlies to trade the second pick.
However the draft will play out on Thursday, the Pelicans is sure to be bent into picking two of the most promising prospects of the class. The Duke-duo of Zion Williamson and RJ Barrett.
