Storyline 3: Is this team’s ceiling high enough to satisfy AD?
The Pelicans’ offense will rely on the team taking and making enough 3-pointers to keep defenses honest. The problem with that however is that the roster is hardly a collection of sharpshooters.
Last year the team was 18th in 3-point attempts per game with 28.2 and 13th in 3-point percentage at 36.2 percent. Without a plus shooter joining the team this offseason, it’s hard to see those ranks improving drastically.
The 2018-19 roster only has two players who shot the 3 at an above-average rate: E’Twaun Moore at 42.5 percent and Darius Miller at 41.1 percent; both are great shooters, but not everything is sunshine and roses with either of them — Moore is an undersized small forward who struggles to rebound and Miller is a one-dimensional shooter.
The team’s other wing options are Solomon Hill, who barely played last year after a hamstring injury and is Darius Miller’s inverse (all defense, no offense) and Ian Clark, also undersized and coming off a season where he shot just 31.8 percent from three.
Second-year Duke product Frank Jackson looks nice as a future combo guard …
https://twitter.com/PelicansNBA/status/1046544133764988929
… but a hopeful playoff team should not be counting on a completely unproven young player to inject life into their offense.
The triple-big lineup featuring Davis, Randle and Mirotic actually seems primed to get some looks, but it’s hard to imagine that lineup being defensively viable enough to log significant time.
With such little to cheer about happening over the summer in New Orleans and few high-upside young players on the roster, the 2018-19 season will again come down to Anthony Davis and Jrue Holiday staying healthy and playing the best basketball of their careers.
That makes for a good team, but not a great one.