If you wasn't viewing the moves at surface level you would see that the Pelicans plan fucked up, but they pivoted and created a ton of flexibility for the trade deadline. Word is alot of teams are simply not sellers right now, and are awaiting other dominoes like Simmons, Lillard, etc.
If the Pelicans are an above 500. Team around the trade deadline, we have a ton of unique assets (TPE, dope contracts, picks, players on expiring deals) to grab a gamer.
I'm actually not mad at their pivot at all and looking forward to Zion with more space and shooters. We got better, not alot better but we got better. Also Willie Green culture/coaching change will possibly help things waaay more since players hated SVG.