New Orleans Pelicans missing chance to add small forward

With the final round of NBA roster cuts coming this weekend, the talk around New Orleans Pelicans twitter has predictably centered around whether or not the team should add one of the young small forwards that found themselves looking for a new NBA home. While a whole slew of names seemed to pop up for the team to take a chance on, three main players really jumped out as the most often talked about– Jordan Hamilton, Joe Ingles and Quincy Miller.

It doesn’t seem likely that the Pelicans bring any of the three players into the fold as they seem content with the options that they have on the roster at the moment, but it may turn out that the team is making a huge mistake by not allocating their roster spots in the right fashion.

More from Pelicans News

• How will the Pelicans round out rotation without Trey Murphy III
• Why you can’t blame Brandon Ingram for all Team USA’s failures
• New Orleans Pelicans avoid potential disaster with latest injury reports
• 3 New Orleans Pelicans whose role will increase next season
• Pelicans getting the fans involved with their upcoming festival

Right now the Pelicans sit with three players on the roster who they would list primarily as small forwards– Luke Babbitt, John Salmons and Darius Miller. The underwhelming group has caused Monty Williams to use the position as a place to get both Tyreke Evans and Ryan Anderson more minutes, meaning that the Pelicans only need about 10 or so minutes a night from an actual small forward. The fact that the available time is so small seems to be why so many people don’t want to take a chance on one of the newly released players. Those people would prefer to use a veteran like Salmons who has been around the league and knows the system and therefore will be more helpful this year by just being in the right spot at the right time, even if he doesn’t have enough left in the tank to always make the right play.

That line of thinking though is exactly where the problem exists. This season shouldn’t be the most important one for the Pelicans. Unless Anthony Davis transforms himself into a combination of in their prime Hakeem Olajuwon and Tim Duncan, the Pelicans have no shot at winning an NBA title in 2014-2015. Instead the team should be looking a bit farther into the future, to a time where Eric Gordon and his contract are gone and Evans is primarily a shooting guard which would re-open the hole at small forward.

With Anthony Davis’s max contract extension looming and the Pelicans potentially without a first round draft pick this year, the Pelicans need to add a cost effective option at small forward for when that happens. Either of Hamilton, Miller or Ingles would have fit as a low cost lottery ticket, especially Miller who had some real good moments for the Denver Nuggets last season.

Miller isn’t going to be a superstar but a 22-year old player with 815 NBA minutes of experience at a position of need seems to make much more sense for New Orleans than Patric Young, which is where the decision comes down to. With the way the New Orleans roster is set up right now, only disaster would cause Young to see meaningful minutes in the next two years, both of which happen to be non-guaranteed on his contract. With Anthony Davis and Ryan Anderson on the roster and the potential for Omer Asik to be signed long-term this summer, the Pelicans have about 10 minutes a night to go to a back-up big man going forward. Young wasn’t good enough to earn those minutes this year and there is no promise he will be next year, especially since the Pelicans have Alexis Ajinca this season and Jeff Withey signed for next, both players who fit better next to Anderson and Davis. In the end there is a very real, and very probable, chance that Patric Young never sees a significant minute for New Orleans before leaving as a free-agent.

Miller meanwhile, would use that roster spot to get familiar with the Pelicans system and see if he could grow into a better fit for minutes than Salmons, Babbitt or Darius Miller. With his length and athleticism, Quincy has the tools to easily become the best defender out of the group and his 32 percent shooting from three last season shows some hope. Miller also shouldn’t have much trouble learning a new system as he did just that last summer with the Nuggets who added Brian Shaw as a new coach. Miller quickly learned the system and took advantage of injuries to start in 16 games.

In the end there is a chance that none of this matters. Miller, Hamilton or Ingles may all sign some place where they can earn more money or more playing time then they would in New Orleans or they could just as easily all bust out of the NBA. But for a team that is constantly looking for, and finding, bargains at all spots on the roster it makes sense to think about it.After all, if the worst case scenario to adding one of those small forwards is that they don’t play at all this season how is that any different from what we project for Patric Young?