Didi Louzada

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Pelicans-Mavericks Postgame: Didi Louzada 5-12-21

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Pelicans.com

The New Orleans Pelicans announced today that the team has signed guard Didi Louzada to a multi-year contract. Per team policy, terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Louzada, 6-5, 210, has played the last two seasons for the Sydney Kings (NBL Australia), where he appeared in 45 games and averaged 10.3 points, 3.8 rebounds, and 1.8 assists.

Selected with the 35th pick in the 2019 draft by Atlanta, Louzada’s draft rights were acquired by New Orleans along with draft rights to Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Jaxson Hayes, in exchange for the draft rights to De’Andre Hunter, Solomon Hill, and a future second-round draft pick on July 6, 2019.

The Brazilian native appeared in four games as a member of the Pelicans’ Summer League team in 2019, averaging 11.0 points, 3.0 rebounds, and 2.0 assists.

Louzada will wear #0 for the Pelicans. New Orleans’ roster currently stands at 16 players.

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Pelicans sign Didi Louzada

Jim Eichenhofer

In conjunction with the first two days of the 2020 NFL draft, Pelicans.com is featuring draft-related articles.

If you were to pick a word that most concisely describes the status of the 2020 NBA Draft, it might be “uncertain,” in more ways than one. Not only were the league’s 30 teams deprived of a sometimes-significant component of player evaluations – college basketball postseason tournaments, including the conference and national varieties – but due to the coronavirus pandemic, it’s impossible to conduct in-person interviews and workouts with player prospects. Furthermore, since the 2019-20 regular season is not yet completed, the 30 NBA teams do not know exactly where their picks will fall in the two-round event, or even an exact date for when the draft will take place. The highly-anticipated annual gathering was scheduled to occur June 25, but right now the entire basketball calendar is “to be determined” (by the way, the ’20 lottery was supposed to be May 19).

At the moment, mock-draft prognosticators are going by how the NBA standings looked when play was suspended March 11. For New Orleans, that means a temporary projection of owning a total of four picks, with one in the first round (the Pelicans would theoretically hold the No. 13 pre-lottery slot) and three choices in the second round (picks 39, 43 and 60, according to NBADraft.net’s mock draft).

As Pelicans Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations David Griffin put it during an April 9 conference call with local media, the current 2020 draft situation is difficult to compare to any other since he’s been part of NBA front offices over the previous 20-plus years.

“We’ve got less to go on this year than we have in the past, simply because we saw less of the college basketball season coming down the stretch,” Griffin said, referring to the lack of tournaments. “(But) we certainly feel like if the draft were held tomorrow, we’d be prepared to do so based on how we go about the process (of) scouting.”

Another facet of the normal draft process that may not be possible this year is the combine, which in recent years has been the held the same week of the draft lottery in Chicago. Without the combine and the opportunity to meet with potential draftees in person, it could be a bit more challenging for teams to get an intimate feel for players off the court.

“Absolutely, between now and when the draft is held, our reality has changed quite significantly in terms of the way we go about it,” Griffin said. “This is where we’re trying to be as creative as possible. We’ve talked about having more Zoom interviews (via video chat), but maybe we try to incorporate some other activities in those things than we have in the past.”

NBA teams also often hold draft workouts for players in their respective cities and practice facilities, but that also appears to be a potential no-go this year. However, Griffin indicated that he has not put a great emphasis or significance on them. Teams putting too much stock into them are subject to mistakes, based on extremely impressive or poor performances during workouts, which usually last only a couple hours.

“We’ve never been a team that puts a lot of credence in the workout anyway; (the pre-draft process is) really more about learning about the human,” Griffin said. “But maybe there’s some things we can do interactively with the draft-eligible (players this year) that we haven’t done in the past.”

Owning four draft picks gives New Orleans enviable flexibility and the potential to go in a number of different directions. One thing seems fairly certain about the ’20 draft for the Pelicans, however: They’d love to have as positive of a night as they did last June, when the talented and promising haul included No. 1 pick Zion Williamson, No. 8 Jaxson Hayes, No. 17 Nickeil Alexander-Walker and second-round wing Didi Louzada, who spent the season developing in Australia’s pro league.

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Did You Know That… New Orleans owns four picks in the 2020 NBA Draft?

Prior to Saturday’s rebroadcast of New Orleans’ memorable road win at Denver from Christmas night, Pelicans Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations David Griffin joined Fox Sports New Orleans TV sideline reporter Jennifer Hale on the “Pelicans Playback” pregame show. Visit Pelicans.com on Sunday for the second episode of the show, featuring a guest appearance by Pelicans GM Trajan Langdon at 5:30 p.m. Central.

Griffin spoke at length during Saturday’s 30-minute show about the team’s in-season improvement and several other topics, also addressing a series of fan questions that were tweeted to @PelicansNBA. Here are three takeaways from Griffin’s appearance:

Lonzo Ball and Nicolo Melli are excellent while paired with Zion Williamson.

The on-court combination of those three players following Williamson’s Jan. 22 debut allowed the Pelicans to reach a different level as a team. Ball consistently fed the No. 1 draft pick for lobs, while Melli’s three-point shooting provided even more room for Williamson to get all the way to the rim.

“A big part of it is the chemistry you see with Lonzo and Zion,” Griffin said. “They have a special connection. I think Nicolo Melli getting more minutes, and him starting to become a key part of the rotation has been essential as well. Those three guys work incredibly well as a unit. Zion gives us another player who can create vertical thrust in the offense, and Lonzo can pick defenses apart with his passing.”

Although obviously not all of Melli’s minutes were played with Williamson following the rookie’s NBA debut, Melli shot 33.3 percent from three-point range before Jan. 22, then shot 39.1 percent from that date forward.

“Melli, when there is that dive thrust (by Williamson) toward the rim, (Melli) is going to be pulling bigs away from the basket,” Griffin said. “He is absolutely essential when Zion’s on the floor, from a spacing standpoint. When you see the relationship between those three growing, it just exponentially improves our team.”

 Australia has been beneficial for Didi Louzada.

A second-round draft pick last June, Louzada’s play was one of many positive developments during NBA Summer League for the Pelicans, who also saw first-round picks Jaxson Hayes and Nickeil Alexander-Walker emerge as some of the top players in the circuit. Louzada’s development continued this winter, as he suited up for the Sydney Kings in Australia’s pro league. 

The 20-year-old averaged 10.3 points in 20 NBL games, while impressive at the defensive end of the floor from his wing position.

Griffin explained that having rugged defenders on New Orleans’ roster helped allow the Pelicans to bring Louzada along at the proper pace.

“Josh Hart is absolutely our junkyard dog right now,” Griffin said of the hard-nosed third-year pro. “He’s the guy setting the tone to an enormous degree by giving himself up on the defensive end. We were so blessed by his presence and the presence of Kenrich Williams, having veteran defensive players. We could afford to let Didi develop in Australia.”

Griffin noted that Langdon’s close relationship with Sydney coach Will Weaver gave the Pelicans even more confidence that Australia would benefit Louzada. Langdon and Weaver were both in the Brooklyn organization and won a G League title with Long Island.

“We were able to get Didi really far ahead of the curve in his development,” Griffin said. “Because we knew unequivocally that Will and his staff were going to do a phenomenal job. It was a really positive thing for us that Sydney was the team Didi ended up with. His development on a very veteran team that had the best record in their league the vast majority of the season, as a starter and defensive stopper, is exactly what we wanted. The future is very bright there as a potential three-and-D stopper who can guard multiple positions.”

The NBA is in wait-and-see mode right now, while dealing with unprecedented circumstances.

Asked if he has a feeling on when basketball may be able to return, Griffin responded, “With everything changing so quickly, everything is in a state of flux that I think it would be premature for the NBA to say what it ultimately looks like. I do know unequivocally that the league is very mindful of the idea of getting back to playing. The idea of canceling a season is not all on their minds, and we’re modeling every possible thing we can for how we can deliver a product to the fans. Quite frankly, we’re all going to need a diversion in the future. (But) until we can get to a point where we think we’ve got containment of (the coronavirus), we’re going to continue to stay locked down. Hopefully we’ll get to a point where we can come back sooner rather than later.”

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Pelicans Playback: Three takeaways from David Griffin’s March 21 appearance

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