I personally think we should go after him this summer, not just because I like his game, but also because of what it would mean for Quickley. I think it's pretty apparent that IQ is not a PG and our coaches have absolutely no intention of developing him as one anyway, so the pathway for him to start gets a little cloudy. You can't have a smaller PG with him, he's got great size for the 1 defensively with his 6'8" wingspan, but he's on the small side of things if he has to defend 2s. That is why I think Lonzo would be an excellent pickup, because he's the right type of backcourt player to pair up with IQ, he's a ball mover that can guard the 1 or 2 and will allow Quickley to be the score first guy and defend mostly 1s. If we can't find a big pg, wing or can't develop RJ into a good playmaker it will be hard to play Quickley as a starter in the future. You need someone to offset his scoring mentality, someone that can and will move the ball and lets him be the 2 on offense, sort of how his brother allows Rozier to look to score. This is a creative way to replace Payton and Bullock, with better playmaking, shooting and scoring.
I also like how Lonzo fits with RJ and Randle (
) because he can operate on the ball or off, and if he continues to shoot the way he has for the last 20 games you get a multi-purpose offensive player. The cons are that he's not a great isolation player, but if you have IQ, RJ and Randle out there you don't need yet another guy who needs to always be on the ball. Also, he was on fire from three last season until the bubble where his shooting went into a crater and lasted about 10 games into this season as well, so how real is the shot?
I am against trading for him if it's not for the bare minimum, with the Pelicans being a small market team we could definitely make their lives miserable in trying to match for him. But, I guess we'll see if they can move Eric Bledsoe, that will tell us if they plan on putting up a fight to keep Lonzo.
