New Orleans Pelicans: 2016 Offseason Grades

The New Orleans Pelicans needed to move toward putting a championship-caliber roster around Anthony Davis this summer, but how’d they do? Here are their complete 2016 offseason grades.

After a four-game first round sweep at the hands of the eventual NBA champions, the New Orleans Pelicans had little to hang their heads about in 2015. Anthony Davis had put up gaudy numbers, the Pellies had snuck into the playoffs for the first time in the Brow era, and they felt like a team on the rise.

Unfortunately, due to the injury bug, a poor supporting cast and, let’s be honest, a great but not elite year from Davis, the Pelicans took a major step back in their first season under Alvin Gentry. They won 15 fewer games, wound up with the No. 6 pick in the draft and had to own up to a summer of poor spending the year prior.

Heading into the 2016 NBA offseason, the Pelicans had an oh-so-obvious checklist to take care of. They needed to find a trade partner for Tyreke Evans, they needed to let Eric Gordon walk in free agency, and they needed to work some kind of miracle to dump Omer Asik‘s contract.

Not all of those goals were realistic, but after re-signing Davis to his gaudy extension last summer, the Pelicans’ overall goal was to move toward putting a championship-caliber roster around a player who will soon dominate the league. The question is, how did they do? Here’s a look at New Orleans’ complete 2016 offseason grades.

Next: Draft Pick No. 1

Draft Pick No. 1

With Eric Gordon hitting free agency and the Pelicans not interested in paying to keep him, New Orleans quickly filled their need for perimeter shooting at No. 6 with Buddy Hield, arguably the best college player in the country last season.

A 6’5″ shooting guard from Oklahoma, Hield’s age (22) is the only thing that prevented him from being a top-three prospect. As a four-year player for the Sooners, Hield is coming off a monstrous senior season in which he averaged 25.0 points and 5.7 rebounds per game, shot 50.1 percent from the floor and 45.7 percent from three-point range, and led his team to the Final Four.

In NBA Summer League, Hield averaged an encouraging 16.8 points, 5.4 rebounds and 3.8 assists per game, but he only shot 32.7 percent from the floor and 22.9 percent from three-point range.

Though he definitely needs improvement on the defensive end and is a little undersized, Hield has the shooting ability to help the Pelicans on the perimeter. Though Jamal Murray was another popular selection among New Orleans mock drafts, Hield has very obvious potential given his elite three-point shooting.

Hield has all the qualities you want to see in a high draft pick: experience, shooting, leadership and work ethic. As long as his shooting translates to the next level, Hield is the first piece in New Orleans that will actually complement Anthony Davis for the long-term.

Grade: A-

Next: Draft Pick No. 2

Draft Pick No. 2

With the No. 33 pick in the 2016 NBA Draft, the Pelicans got their hands on a player who was projected to be a lottery pick earlier in the season. Though he didn’t quite live up to those lofty projections, this is still very good value for New Orleans in the second round.

In his lone season at Kansas, Cheick Diallo barely cracked Bill Self’s rotation, averaging 3.0 points, 2.5 rebounds and 0.9 blocks in only 7.5 minutes per game. As a 6’9″ power forward with a massive 7’5″ wingspan and 9’1″ standing reach, it’s clear this 19-year-old has the physical base to play at the NBA level.

In NBA Summer League, Diallo got his chance to show what he can do. In his five games in Las Vegas, he averaged 10.8 points, 9.4 rebounds and 2.2 blocks per game, shooting 48.9 percent from the floor, knocking down one of his two three-pointers and shooting 70 percent from the foul line.

Diallo is a high-upside pick who earned a three-year deal (with the fourth year being a $1.3 million qualifying option) because of his potential as a rebounder and rim protector. He’s not much of an offensive weapon, but he has plenty of time to improve, and at the very least, is a more attractive long-term big to pair with Davis than either Omer Asik or Alexis Ajinca.

Grade: A-

Next: Signing Solomon

Signing Solomon

With cap space and pieces like Eric Gordon, Omer Asik and Tyreke Evans that really needed to go, the Pelicans’ first major move of free agency — signing Solomon Hill to a four-year, $48 million contract — was downright disappointing.

To be fair, Hill is — on paper, at least — the prototypical two-way wing player the Pelicans have needed for years. He came to life for the Indiana Pacers in the playoffs last year, averaging 7.7 points and 4.0 rebounds per game on .452/.579/.938 shooting splits, all while doubling as a versatile stretch-4 and lockdown wing defender on the other end.

However, seven games is an exceedingly small sample size, and the Pelicans are hedging quite a hefty bet that it will translate into a breakout season for Hill in 2016-17. For a player who averaged 4.2 points per game on .447/.324/.857 shooting during the regular season, a $12 million average annual salary seems ill-advised.

Hill is only 25 years old and if he’s able to build on that breakout playoff performance, he’ll be a solid two-way wing for New Orleans, providing three-point shooting, perimeter defense and the ability to play the 4 in small-ball lineups.

But even for the NBA’s 28th ranked defense last season, the Pelicans might regret ponying up this much dough for Hill, who just might not be that good. This year’s free agency class was short on wings, but it’s hard to feel confident the Pelicans are putting the right kinds of players around Anthony Davis when they’re shelling out four-year, $48 million deals to guys like Solomon Hill.

Grade: C-

Next: More For Moore

More For Moore

Solomon Hill was an inflated surprise signing, but he filled a position of need on the wing. So too is the case with E’Twaun Moore, though he was brought in to help with the Pelicans’ backcourt depth.

On a four-year, $34 million contract, Moore will get the chance for the first time in his NBA career to take on an expanded role for a team that just lost Eric Gordon to free agency and will (at some point) try to move on from Tyreke Evans.

Entering his sixth season in the league, all of Moore’s signs of promise have failed to create any traction. He spent his first season barely playing in Boston and right when he was starting to build momentum in Orlando, he hit free agency and signed with the Bulls.

https://twitter.com/MasonGinsberg/status/758749785796915203

Moore had a few eye-opening games filling in for the injured Derrick Rose and Jimmy Butler over the next two seasons, but once again, he never found any lasting success. In New Orleans, he’ll look to change that and expand upon the 7.5 points, 2.3 rebounds and 1.7 assists per game he averaged last season.

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Moore has the versatility to play both guards spots if New Orleans’ horrible injury luck continues, but he’ll most likely be used off the bench behind Buddy Hield…or possibly ahead of him if Hield is not ready…or possibly even behind Evans if the Pelicans continue to pretend he needs minutes.

Either way, there’s a real chance for Moore to strengthen this backcourt, and as a career 36.9 percent shooter from distance, he’ll help spread the floor as well. His defense is also a key reason this signing works, since NOLA was one of the NBA’s worst defenses last year.

This is a bit more money than people were expecting for a guy like Moore, especially for a team that needed to make bigger waves this summer, but it’s not necessarily a bad signing in and of itself.

Grade: C+

Next: Getting Galloway

Getting Galloway

With a two-year, $10 million contract, the Pelicans swooped in on a useful reserve that the New York Knicks honestly should’ve been all over. Though his shooting took a cliff dive after the first few weeks of the season last year, Langston Galloway is an extremely cost-effective addition to the Pellies’ backcourt.

Last year in the Big Apple, Galloway struggled to find playing time in a backcourt that allocated far too many minutes to aging guards like Jose Calderon and Sasha Vujacic.

When he began to struggle with his shot midway through November, the coaching staff lost faith in him — even though he was far younger and still working hard on the defensive end.

Still, Galloway averaged 11.8 points per game as a rookie, and even while playing eight fewer minutes per game as a sophomore, he managed to put up 7.6 points per game on 34.4 percent shooting.

A Baton Rouge native, Galloway is coming home to a team that could use his three-point shooting alongside Hield and Moore — assuming he can find it again, of course. That being said, a talented 24-year-old falling into NOLA’s laps at such a modest price really is a hand-wrapped gift from the Knicks.

Grade: A-

Next: T-Jones Joins

T-Jones Joins

On a one-year minimum contract, it’s hard to feel too bad about signing Terrence Jones, a player who has completely failed to live up to expectations due to injuries and the litany of chemistry problems that befell the Houston Rockets over the last year.

Pelican Debrief

At one point — at the end of his sophomore season when he put up 12.1 points and 6.9 rebounds per game, to be exact — it felt like Jones was on the verge of joining James Harden and Dwight Howard as the third member of Houston’s Big Three.

Instead, he missed 49 games the following season due to injury, failing to build upon his potential as the stretch-4 Houston had been craving ever since the Miami Heat managed to steal Chris Bosh back from the Rockets’ clutches in free agency.

The season after his first injury-stricken year, Jones’ role in the rotation was largely diminished, with his numbers dropping to 8.7 points and 4.2 rebounds per game — all while playing six fewer minutes per game, shooting just 31.6 percent from three-point range and missing another 32 games due to injury.

It doesn’t hurt that he has a relationship with Anthony Davis from their time winning a championship together at Kentucky.

At age 24, the potential is still there for Jones. He’s a good rebounder, an aggressive player in the paint and it feels like he’s right on the cusp of being able to spread the floor out to three-point range.

But we’ve also been saying that about Terrence Jones for the last three seasons now, so if this uber-athletic power forward can’t stay healthy again, at least New Orleans can rest easy knowing this one-year trial run only cost them a minimum salary.

Grade: B+

Next: Odds And Ends

Odds And Ends

Remember after his 2012-13 season in Cleveland when it felt like Alonzo Gee was the next 3-and-D wing on the rise in this league? Three years and three teams later, it still hasn’t happened, with Gee having to watch from afar as the Cavs made two Finals appearances while he labored to simply carve out a role for himself.

Despite averaging a paltry 4.5 points and 3.4 rebounds per game on 28.3 percent shooting from beyond the arc for NOLA last year, Gee was re-signed to a one-year, $1.4 million contract — the exact same figure as the player option he turned down to become an unrestricted free agent.

Gee helps tighten up the edge of the roster and provides the 29-year-old wing with one more chance to prove himself, but New Orleans’ influx of younger players will make that difficult for him.

The Pelicans also re-signed Tim Frazier to a two-year, $4 million contract, bringing back a quality third-string point guard who can help hold down the fort in the event of another injury bug outbreak.

Last season, Frazier averaged 5.1 points and 3.2 assists in 14.5 minutes per game, shooting 41.9 percent from the floor and 33.3 percent from three-point range. But in the 16 games he played for New Orleans, he put up promising numbers, averaging 13.1 points, 7.5 assists and 4.4 rebounds per game on .450/.419/.763 shooting splits.

At 25 years old, re-signing a player who stepped in for an injury-ravaged backcourt is a smart move.

The Pelicans also agreed to make-good training camp deals with Robert Sacre — formerly of the Los Angeles Lakers — and Chris Copeland — formerly of the Milwaukee Bucks.

Sacre averaged 4.2 points and 3.1 rebounds in 14.5 minutes per game over his four years with the Lakers, while Copeland is coming off the most disappointing season of his career, averaging 2.1 points in just 6.5 minutes per game and shooting 33.3 percent from the field as a complete non-factor for the Bucks.

Finally, the Pelicans added Shawn Dawson, a 6’6″ wing from Israel who went undrafted in 2015 and has spent the last four years playing in the Israeli Basketball Premier League.

Dawson helped lead his team to the Israeli championship last season and during his time playing for the Washington Wizards’ Summer League team this offseason, he averaged 4.8 points and 1.7 rebounds per game while shooting 47.5 percent from the floor.

Apparently that was enough to land him a two-year, partially guaranteed contract. Frazier and Gee are decent enough additions considering their low price tags, but nothing New Orleans did here improves their playoff odds for 2016-17.

Grade: C

Next: Overall

Overall

Heading into the summer, the New Orleans Pelicans really needed to trade Tyreke Evans, pawn off Omer Asik on someone and let Eric Gordon leave in free agency. Perhaps those first two were never realistic possibilities, but the front office’s inability to put a superior supporting cast around their franchise player stands out all the same.

With Evans constantly banged up and Asik’s contract being an albatross in the wake of his all-time low value, it may be awhile before the Pellies are able to move into an era where the Brow is the best player on a surefire playoff team, let alone a championship-caliber contender.

I mean, just take a look at what he’ll have to work with in 2016-17:

On the one hand, you could look at that projected depth chart and notice there’s a better balance to it. New Orleans lost two of their best three-point shooters in Gordon and Ryan Anderson this summer, but they also added youth, defense, some perimeter shooting and depth to replace them.

The only problem is New Orleans’ entire roster outside of Anthony Davis is made up of a bunch of Alonzo Gees: players who have the base skill set and are young enough to believe in, but for whatever reason, wind up topping out as below-average rotation players in this league.

Think about it: Would anyone be surprised to see Solomon Hill only put up marginally improved numbers as a starter? Would anyone be shocked if E’Twaun Moore is unable to step out of his shell and become more than a third-string point guard? You could ask the same of Galloway, Frazier and T-Jones too.

The worst part is, if these players don’t work out in a worst-case scenario, the length of some of their contracts could become a problem, even if they’re far more movable than Asik’s nightmare deal. None of these individual deals were bad, per se, but as a whole, they’re a bit underwhelming.

The Pelicans really had a glass half-empty, glass half-full kind of summer. If you believe Hill’s playoff success is sustainable, if you believe Moore is due for a breakout year in an expanded role, and if you believe Jones can stay healthy and have a resurgent season, then New Orleans probably feels like a playoff threat.

But most of the Pelicans’ summer consisted of gathering players who have room to grow in theory, but could just as easily fail to do so as a mismatched bunch trying to all take on expanded roles at the same time.

More hoops habit: Houston Rockets: 2016 Offseason Grades

For a franchise that needs to be doing everything in its power to assemble a contender around a once-in-a-lifetime player like Davis, signing players like Hill and Moore to four-year deals isn’t exactly getting the job done.

Grade: C-