NBA: Ranking every team based off draft success over the last 20 years

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NBA New Orleans Pelicans Zion Williamson (Photo by Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images) /

4. New Orleans Pelicans: 60.5 points

2003: David West: 3 (2x all-star, 1.5x multiplier for pick outside of lottery)
2004: J.R. Smith: 0.5
2005: Chris Paul: 37 (10x all-star, 4x 1st team, 3x 2nd team, 1x 3rd team)
2009: Darren Collison: 0.5
2012: Anthony Davis: 19 (7x all-star, 3x 1st team)
2019: Zion Williamson: 0.5

It’s too bad for the Pelicans, but they’ve basically been a farm system for the rest of the NBA since their inception in 2002. In fact, you could argue that David West is the only quality player they’ve ever drafted who has played his prime in New Orleans (Zion doesn’t count yet). You could make an argument for Anthony Davis, but considering he’s still only 27 I think it’s a safe bet that his best basketball is still ahead of him.

Retaining quality players has been a much larger challenge for the Pelicans than drafting them, but none of that matters now. New Orleans is set up for the future as well as any team in the NBA with Zion, Brandon Ingram, and every Lakers’ pick through 2058 (off the top of my head) to build with. So as long as they can find a way to retain Zion and Ingram for the long haul they’ll be just fine.