Playing buy or sell with each NBA playoff bubble team

New Orleans Pelicans: Buy

The New Orleans Pelicans looked like they were headed for sell mode, but a small winning streak right before Zion Williamson’s debut put them in solid position to take the No. 8 seed. Even though they’re 4½ games back of the eighth-place Grizzlies, FiveThirtyEight is giving NOLA a 44 percent chance to make the playoffs.

And what a story that would be. Qualifying for playoffs the season after being forced to trade Anthony Davis, who only made the playoffs twice in New Orleans, would make them everybody’s favorite upstart.

Brandon Ingram has a serious case to make the All-Star Game, averaging 25.0 points, 6.3 rebounds and 4.3 assists on 59.6 percent true shooting. In Williamson’s absence, Ingram has been a legitimate first option on excellent efficiency.

A solid support cast exists around him too. Jrue Holiday hasn’t been a great shooter, but is still an excellent perimeter defender and is happy to slide into a secondary role. J.J. Redick, a longtime assassin from beyond the arc, is still hitting 46.5 percent of his 3s on the season.

Derrick Favors and Jaxson Hayes have turned into an above-average center rotation, each with above-average “catch-all” metrics.

There’s just a lot of fun parts here, some of which may have to go just for business purposes. President of basketball operations David Griffin did a great job accumulating lots of quality players, many of which have more value to other teams than to New Orleans.

And then there’s Williamson, who has already dropped 72 points (on just 49 shots) in only 96 minutes. When attacking downhill, the most recent No. 1 pick is practically unstoppable for mere mortals.