 What's the word y'all welcome back? We are here to talk about the first official trade of the off-season Hopefully this is the first domino to fall for us to get a ridiculously crazy off-season. I am here for let's talk about it I'm just chilling here. I'm playing my first game of Pokemon unite I'm on slowpoke and I think I play well We got the W that's all it really matters and I get a notification on my phone Took me a few minutes to actually react to it because again, I'm in this game I don't want to let my teammates down so I wait till the game is over and boom It's a trade from waltz. You don't know what I'm talking about. Let me fill you in Memphis Grizzlies are sending Jonas Valenskunas a 17th overall pick and a 51st overall pick to New Orleans for Steven Adam Eric Bledsoe the number 10 pick the number 40 pick and a 2022 first-round pick via the Lakers that is top 10 protect them. Whoo. I can already see I know Memphis Grizzlies fans love Valenskunas and you you still have that attachment to him But I'm excited to see the the photoshop's of Steven Grizzly Adams or The t-shirts is gonna somebody's gonna have somebody somebody's gonna have it. This is one of the rare trades were on paper. I Believe that both teams win now You don't really know until you see the bouncing of the balls But I think this is a W of a trade now I said the same thing last season and this lets you know how crazy it can be when Josh Richardson got traded for Seth Curry I was like W for both teams. Obviously that didn't really turn out to be a W for both teams But until we see the actual teams or how the rest of the offices it goes We can't really grade this trade right now, but we can talk about it But on paper, I do enjoy this. Let's talk about this from the Pelican side of things Because I'm on record of saying this is one of the most important off-season's Impelicans history for a few reasons the first one being Zion Williamson your emergent star who was already an all-star in just a second season He probably would have been an all-star in his first season. We'll be an honest with each other It's going into his third head coach his third head coach already in three seasons That's not good to have a young player with real no real consistency And his locker room and yes, listen, I think they hired the right guy I'm super excited to see see what Willie Green does for this team I do believe he can be the player coach that can relate to these younger players because he is also a younger guy in himself That's the first reason why this is a super super important off-season the second is they just had a Superstar player Anthony Davis who gave them eight nine I don't remember how many years of his career and he just didn't end on good terms I know that can leave a bad taste in the mouths of the future stars that are coming into the organization and the last one JJ ready got traded at the trade that line and he was not happy He went on to his podcast He talked about all the ins and outs the bads and the goods of the front office and the lack of Trust between the front office and the players So you need this off-season for the pelicans to be a very very good one, right? And this first trade this first trade I can look at and understand the direction of what they're doing Because last off-season they did some things where I couldn't see the direction of it, right? They trade you holiday and yes, you get back pics and we go talk about those pics and you get an Eric Bledsoe, right? Okay, no big deal. You're how there's really good You got a lot of pics of you how they turn into me and they be a champion good for them The other thing they did last off-season that may zero sense to me and I'm on record of saying this too You can go back in the videos I don't know how you can extend Stephen Adams without seeing how he plays with your star players Especially when your star player is a 6-6 power forward that doesn't shoot the ball We're gonna pair him with a seven footer that sits in the paint all day And we're gonna extend him 20 plus million a year it made little to no sense to me now starting off this off-season They made a move that makes sense and yes, it did cost them But it makes sense because you know this valentunas is a big-body screen setter He is a positive defender But the thing that's gonna matter the most with this pelican team is the fact that he has the ability to Shoot threes and I know Stephen Adams say he was working on it He legitimately wants to be a stretch four of stretch five and maybe he will be that but Jonas valentunas is backed up But a couple years of him being a good three-point shooter I understand he only attempt to one a game, but he shot like almost 40% on that one a game Which is really good. I would expect when he comes to the pelicans. They're going to have him They're gonna allow him to shoot the ball way more than what he was doing in Memphis because Ziya Williams and needs that type of stretch Ability on his team. I want to type it. I don't know much about About about Willie green when it comes to coaching, but I'm excited to see what type of systems he actually runs with this team Um, so young as valentunas comes in immediately is a positive But deeper than on-court things right now This sets them up for a successful offseason deeper than that because you got off the terrible contract Stephen Adams We already talked about that extension being stupid You got the bad contract of Eric Bledsoe and now that allows them to talk to point guards and I hate that I hate that. You know why? Because now they have the money to potentially match whatever Lonzo gets offer and as a person that would love to see Lonzo in that that black and red I don't like the the idea of them having the money to match Lonzo ball But hopefully from a bull's-pissed fans perspective I hope that they go after another guy who they even wanted to talk to it seems like and that is Kylo Laurie So this trade yes It cost them seven draft spots and then a future pick from the Lakers This allows them to go into free agency and potentially buy and put together a team that they believe Can work around Zion and Brandon Ingram maybe because there were some more reports today about Brandon Ingram in Miami I don't know how legitimate those reports were But it's a possibility so that right there you see you drop down seven spots That's fine when you have the type of flexibility because this is a team Remember, this is a team that is trying to compete for a playoff spot I understand that these guys I on three years ago But what you see with Trey young what you see with Luka Dodgers what you see with Jameret is players on their rookie deal Competed for playoff spots and it's good for the front office to be able to be buyers while Zion is still only making First overall pick money instead of super max money where he's gonna get when he's eligible for you know what I'm saying So this allows them to go into free agency get their point guard. Hopefully it's not Zion Oh, hopefully it's not Lonzo and they can continue to roll like that now from Memphis Part of you. Yes, Jonas Valentino. This was one of the most impactful players in your team Probably the second most impactful other than Xamarin obviously because defensively like I said a positive He seems like a great team player killing the glass Can stretch the floor a little bit hard-bodied screens. He was just all around great great pro but what I really say About the Memphis Grizzlies is from the past couple years. They have been amazing and I mean absolutely amazing when it comes to Finding talent in the draft Absolutely amazing and this trade tells me that they have someone on their radar And I'm seeing a tweet right here right in front of me that Josh giddy is a guy that they're targeting a number 10 If you still available and if they believe that Josh giddy is their guy I trust their front office, bro, because they have done a tremendous job with drafting over the last couple years I'm trying to quickly go through all of this. Okay, so Desmond Bay Desmond Bay was an amazing pickup I don't think technically they draft the Desmond Bay, but they got him as a rookie great talent There job right obviously the second overall pick Brandon Clark was really good Xavier Tillman I have to do this because my pinky doesn't work the way most people people's pinkies work Jaren Jackson jr. These are all picks that they got within the draft successfully So if they believe at number 10 that they have a guy that they like I trust that front office to do that and Memphis is never a place That's going to sign big name free agents. It just won't be so the way they're gonna potentially build A championship team because that's what everybody wants to do. Everybody wants to win a championship The way they build a championship team is hitting on their draft picks and winning their trades So they're moving up Seven spots to take on two relatively bad contracts and you get another first round pick in the future Sounds like a W to me and Steven Adams as much of a or the lack of a fit. He wasn't a fit for the pelicans He can still be pretty solid. He's not a bad NBA player. Eric Blatch. It was not a bad NBA player He's just not He didn't fit with the pelicans wanted to do but Eric Bledsoe me and a guy's literally talked about this yesterday Be before or two days ago before this trade even happened if Eric Bledsoe is your backup point guard Then you probably have a pretty solid team because Eric Bledsoe is a great defender downhill There's not many people stopping him and he does those type of things. I Don't I love this trade. I really do love this trade for the Memphis Grizzly side of the ball Side of the things I just want to see what they do with this number 10 pick see what they could get at 40 Because I mentioned they were pretty good at the back of the draft too And then they also get a pick in from the Anthony Davis trade now I'm gonna go back to the pelicans because y'all know we be rambling and rambling. I ain't got no script or nothing I do like what the pelicans is doing here as well when you trade Anthony Davis where you trade drew holiday We trade Paul George when you trade James Harden you get a ton of picks right you get a ton of picks and yes It does help It is a good idea to maybe draft some of those picks But I am a full-on believer that you should be using some of those picks that you get in these these blackbuster trades To move up in the draft or to get current day players that you think can help you right now You see that would okay see it seems like okay See is trying to call up to get the first overall pick because they have 20-something first-rounders in the next seven years It's hard for the Detroit Pistons To not at least pick up the phone if Sam presses it's like hey, we really love Kade We're willing to throw you six first-round picks So I like that the that the pelicans are willing to sell some of those picks they got back in the Anthony Davis trade if they Truly truly believe that this is the right move for them to get better in the near future I wonder if more teams gonna do that right the Houston Rockets have a ton of picks for because of the James Harden trade okay, see as a ton of picks because of Paul George because of Russell Westbrook because of everybody Because I'll work for like it's a lot of picks a lot of picks in their repertoire And it's just it's just safer that way Not many teams have the NBA draft down to a science other than the Memphis Grizzlies, I guess So it's probably safe for the trade for a player that you know you absolutely know can help you instead of taking a shot on a guy in The 20s four years from now. Let's trade that pick now before we know that that pick is 27 Anyway, let me know what you think in the comment section about this trade Really solid way to start off this Monday NBA draft is on Thursday france. You start 8 August 6th I'm excited y'all