The New Orleans Pelicans are sure to be one of the more interesting teams this season, but can they fight their way into the playoff picture out West?
The 2019-20 NBA season is just over two months away, and for the New Orleans Pelicans, the new season brings a fresh start. The Pelicans may have experienced their fair share of turbulence last season, but this team bounced back just about as well one could.
A little luck in the draft lottery helped set this franchise up for strong offseason and they have made the most of every opportunity. Between capitalizing on the inevitable Anthony Davis trade and a successful offseason, the Big Easy has its fair share of fresh faces.
While there is plenty of reasons to be optimistic about New Orleans’ future, the team’s ceiling heading into a new season remains unclear. All things considered, ruling the Pels out as a playoff team may not be a wise move.
With the departure of Davis, the team will look to Jrue Holiday to lead both on the court and assume the role of face of the franchise. Recent first overall pick Zion Williamson will certainly be the focal point of the team down the road, but for now, President of Basketball Operations David Griffin has been vocal about the keys being handed Holiday.
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Griffin has put the league on notice that he wouldn’t even be surprised to see All-Defensive guard elevate his game to an MVP level this season. The praise isn’t unwarranted, and his impact doesn’t go unnoticed by his peers either. An anonymous poll among NBA players conducted by The Athletic earlier this year named Holiday the most underrated player in the league.
Holiday had a career year last season in terms of scoring, putting up 21.2 points a game. With more shots to go around, it isn’t crazy to expect him to take a step forward in terms of production. Jrue Holiday playing at an MVP level would give this team a hefty boost in their chances to make the playoffs.
Not only will the team be lining up behind one of the best guards in the NBA likely entering his best season, but they have also made some excellent additions.
The Pelicans aren’t shy on young talent moving forward. A monster return for Anthony Davis provided some talented young players like Lonzo Ball and Brandon Ingram, who will both have a second chance to show the world why they were drafted in the top of their respective draft classes.
Additionally, players drafted this summer lend to the team significant depth. Zion Williamson will easily be the most intriguing rookie entering the season and has a chance to make the type of immediate impact we expect from potentially generational talents. Other rookies such as Jaxson Hayes and Nickeil Alexander-Walker showed promise during Summer League and could prove to be excellent picks and help provide for this team right away, as well.
The importance of a seasoned front office orchestrator like Griffin was shown in free agency. Signings like JJ Redick and Derrick Favors not only help round the roster out by providing some much-needed veteran experience. Redick is still one of the more premier marksmen in the league and Favors offers a skillset ideal for a modern center.
To say both know how to win would be an understatement, considering Favors has played on a playoff team four out of nine seasons since entering the league and J.J. has played playoff basketball every year of his career. The team may be one of the younger in the league, but top to bottom, the Pelicans roster totes the kind of depth needed to earn a spot in the postseason.
New Orleans may have the makings of a playoff team, but it most certainly has its work cut out. Even if for no other reason, the road to the playoffs will be a challenging one just because they play in the Western Conference.
The race to the Finals has become a battle of juggernauts and floating around .500 may not be enough to even earn a spot as an eighth seed in this loaded conference. There’s a case to be made for at least five or six Western Conference teams to have a chance to win it all, let alone make the playoffs.
Not only will their margin of error be razor-thin from the jump, this team still has plenty to figure out. A lot of the players seem to compliment each other well on paper, but only time will tell how well that translates to the court. Not only will they need to learn to play together, and do so quickly, but this team will be reliant on multiple young players for much of their production.
As currently constructed, roughly two-thirds of this roster has yet to play more than four seasons in NBA, leaving a lot of room for variance in what type of player they will be.
This may be a case where it is improbable that the New Orleans Pelicans advance to the postseason come April, but not impossible. Either way, it is certain that this team could be better than expected and shouldn’t be counted out by anyone just yet.