Pretty much any team in the league could beat that offer. It's insanely low, way worse than the Lakers reported offer. If the Celtics are lucky enough to get AD, it's going to hurt. Not getting him for 15 cents on the dollar.
Wait. What? This is what you wrote earlier in the thread:
The problem with these bulk trade offers is, what are the odds a team likes all four of your guys?
Maybe they like one, think one is ok, and have no interest in the other two. While the Lakers may think it's a strong offer of their four best prospects, the Pelicans might think they're getting one and a half guys back.
The Pelicans, and anyone trading a star, should just be hunting for the one best asset they love, then build a deal around it. Taking back a bulk package if they don't absolutely love at least one guy, and probably two, is a disaster.
This is very astute! I feel like current me and old you should be agreeing. If the Pelicans don't like the centerpiece(s) of the deal, it shouldn't matter how many marginal assets are included in that deal. This report said they don't want Lonzo. Maybe it's Ingram. But let's say they happen to not like Ingram's game for what they would hope to build post-AD. Which of the Lakers' young guys is definitively more valuable to NO than the MEM pick? I don't think it's crazy to say there isn't a clear answer.
If I were in charge of a rebuild in NO, I'd rank the Celtics' and Lakers' assets as such:
1. Tatum
2. MEM pick
3 (tie). SAC pick / Brown (depends what NO wants in terms of a timeline)
5. Lakers 1st round picks and pick swaps 2022-2025 (these move up to no. 2, if you think LeBron is getting injured or retiring prematurely just as these convey. But with LeBron there and it being LA, I think they replenish mid-course and add another star closer to AD's age, so these picks stay in the 20s for most of this period)
6. Ball (extra year of control compared to Ingram; you could flip him)
7. Hart (seems like a solid guy, and with Brogdon-lite potential)
8. TimeLord (could be defensive anchor and lob machine, doesn't need the ball)
9. Lakers 1st round picks and pick swaps 2019-2021
10. Celtics future 1st round picks (say 2020-2024)
11. Ingram (admittedly, I just don't get his appeal)
12. Kuzma (gets you buckets but useless for a team in purgatory)
But if the Pelicans want to recreate the 2016-17 Lakers, only with Jrue Holiday instead of LeBron, they're free to try and save the franchise that way. And your point that "any team" could beat the Celtics' low-ball offer misses the point. No team (other than the several I mentioned) that could, would. Because they'd be mortgaging their future for one year of a grumpy and possibly pretending-to-be-injured AD.
EDIT: I don't know where to rank S&T Rozier, Morris, Smart, etc., but you get the point.