New Orleans Pelicans: 2018-19 NBA season preview
By James Grieco
The New Orleans Pelicans have finally built a roster around Anthony Davis that can compete, but is the team’s ceiling high enough to satisfy their superstar?
Back in the lead-up to the 2012 NBA Draft, Anthony Davis was the apple of every tanking team’s eye. The University of Kentucky center was thought to be one of the few “can’t miss” prospects to come around during the 21st century.
Coming off of a turbulent period when the team was owned and being operated by the NBA itself, the New Orleans Pelicans (née Hornets) had just the fourth-best pre-draft lottery odds in 2012, but managed to win the NBA Draft Lottery and the rights to draft Davis.
The victory was so stunning and such a gut punch to the historically bad 2011-12 Charlotte Bobcats, that many people claimed the lottery had been rigged to give incoming owner Tom Benson (R.I.P.) something to work with.
Fast forward six years and the Pelicans are currently facing one of the most important seasons in the franchise’s history.
After winning 48 games and a playoff series last year, the team, which has perennially disappointed despite Davis’s otherworldly talent, needs to replicate some of that success to convince The Brow to commit to New Orleans long-term.
To clarify, this roster is capable of doing some damage come playoff-time. Whether it will remains to be seen.