New Orleans Pelicans: 5 reasons the Pels will make the playoffs

1. Chaotic style of play

Youth combined with a roster that has played the majority of their career without one another results in two things regularly in the NBA — turnovers and fast-paced play in order to avoid setting up an offense.

It also describes the Pelicans 2019-2020 season pretty damn well.

With what was basically E’Twaun Moore and Holiday returning from the 2018-2019 squad, things were completely revamped, and this team had a new look, and over New Orleans’ dismal 6-22 stretch to start the season, it was clear there were plenty of kinks to work out.

Having turned around their season and gone 22-14 since, one could say the kinks have been worked out. The offense flows much more efficiently, Zion and Favors are back and healthy and the Pels still fly up and down the court with no abandon.

But they’ve been through some pretty hellish stuff.

Not only was it a rarity that New Orleans had their top-tier starting five (and what was statistically the best starting five throughout the NBA) of Ball, Holiday, Ingram, Williamson and Favors all on the floor at the same time, Williamson only played in 19 games.

Favors didn’t play with the team for a stretch of 13 games due to the untimely death of his mother. The Pelicans were plagued by turnovers — not only from their youth but from a team leader in Holiday. New Orleans can have a different player be their leading scorer every night.

This team will be ready for anything and everything thrown at them. It’s not just the remaining teams at the edge of the playoff bubble that have to worry about the Pelicans. It’s the entire league.