Who is Dell Demps and why is he a NBA GM

Anthony Davis requested a trade.

Anyone who is even marginally interested in basketball and the NBA knows this already. They probably also know that he wants to go to LA, but that the team with the best potential offer, Boston, has to wait until the summer because of an obscure rule. It all seems like quite a bit to digest, and that’s before you consider that this entire situation may be the inflection point that determines whether New Orleans has a basketball team in the next decade.

What, or who, most people don’t know is Pelicans General Manager Dell Demps. I know this because his Wikipedia page is barren and there is barely a footnote about his role with the Pelicans. Keep in mind there are only 30 of these jobs in the world (123 if you count all of the big 4 sports). It’s kind of a big deal.

By now, most people have heard of him and that’s primarily due to this mess; however, I’m not sure most could pick him out of a line at a local Smoothie King and yet for whatever fans remain of the team, he will be the one charged with cleaning up this mess. But should he be.

A quick "Google" search reveals that this Dell Demps is the same Dell Demps who executed that infamous Chris Paul trade. You remember, the one where David Stern, the Commissioner of the NBA (which owned the Hornets, now Pelicans, at the time), vetoed a trade ostensibly because it was so lopsided. That trade was to the Lakers; Yes, the same Lakers now stalking the most recent franchise cornerstone looking to hitch a ride out of town. Then Commissioner Stern referred to Demps as "lousy".

Apparently he wasn’t lousy enough for the new ownership group that came in to let someone else oversee the construction of the team around the new cornerstone, and generational talent, Anthony Davis. By all accounts the Benson family, first via Tom Benson and now his widow Gayle, is committed to New Orleans, as they also own the NFL Saints.

So, here we are all over again, after a bunch of moves by that same GM have resulted in that generational talent being wasted. And, yes, Jrue Holiday is a fantastic player, but if that’s it in nearly 10 years of being at the helm then I feel like there’s a "broken clock" analogy that could slide in here neatly.

The point is that if the folks who own the Pelicans actually want the team to stick around, they should free Dell Demps to update his Wikipedia page, as well as his resume as soon as the trade deadline passes tomorrow. I know this may seem harsh and I can already hear the Jeff Van Gundy types yelling that I don’t know how hard it is to be a GM of a professional franchise. I agree; I don’t. I’m also not a helicopter pilot, but if I see one in a tree I know someone screwed up.

At this point, it doesn’t matter what the Pelicans do with Davis, as long as they do it in the off-season. There’s been a lot of ink spilled on that, but the simple reason is in any negotiation/sale you want as many possible offers (ahem, Celtics) and you want some certainty as to the assets you are receiving. Draft picks are valuable, but they are variable. Ask those same Celtics about that Sacramento pick that seemed so valuable before that team got good. It`s best to know what you`re getting given the importance of this deal and the way the ping pong balls may fall in advance of this year`s draft, for example.

In any case, it’s clear they are going to get some combination of young players and draft picks. We can debate the merits of the offers out there, and whether Jayson Tatum is better than Brandon Ingram (he is). That’s beside the point; the Pelicans need someone with a clear strategy, foresight and some modicum of a track record; otherwise fans may find themselves in the same place, but only figuratively because the franchise may be long gone by then if this situation turns out "lousy".