The New Orleans Pelicans are young but does that matter?

Since they decided to rebuild on the fly with trades and free agent signings instead of draft picks, the New Orleans Pelicans have always been a controversial franchise. Opponents of the strategy have crushed the Pelicans for giving away cost controlled young assets with a chance at finding a diamond in the rough star, while those that believed in the system have pointed to the team finding talented young players that were already established at the NBA level.

After a playoff appearance in the 2014-2015 season many of the people who have believed in the way the Pelicans have rebuilt have been proven partially correct, as the Pelicans fought through incredible injuries to flash incredible single game highs. As New Orleans goes forward those people are now pointing to the youth of the roster as they head into next season and saying that it points for even more growth and a potentially higher ceiling. After all, the Pelicans starting lineup averages just 25 years old at the moment, and it hasn’t ever seen a full season of health together since all the players were acquired. But are the Pelicans guaranteed to make a huge jump thanks to the relatively low age? Not necessarily.

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The one thing that the Pelicans age hides is that many of the team’s key pieces will be in at least their fifth season in the league when next season starts. In fact, out of the Pelicans 10 rotation players that finished this season, only Norris Cole and Anthony Davis will have been in the league four seasons or less. While much of the roster may be younger veterans, the fact remains that at a certain point players are who they are and for many of the Pelicans that seems to be the case.

Jrue Holiday has missed much of the last two seasons due to injuries which has severely clouded the outlook on his growth. Holiday is an elite defender at the point guard spot when healthy, and offensively he has shown great chemistry with Anthony Davis in the pick-and-roll. Thanks to two leg injuries though it remains to be seen if Holiday will develop past a pretty good player and into some type of minor star which would involve more moments where he just takes over the game offensively. At the end of the day Holiday just looks very much like the third best player on a title team at his absolute best and the Pelicans need something more than that.

Tyreke Evans had a pretty good season last year for the Pelicans but there are some indicators that show he may actually be in decline instead of getting better. Evans posted the third worst true shooting percentage of his career this season thanks in part to a career high three-point rate and the lowest free throw percentage of his career. Considering Evans cannot shoot from distance, had the lowest free throw rate of his career last season and has seen his turnover percentage rise ever year of his career the signs are not great. With how much of his game involves attacking the rim, it is discouraging to see that Evans has never come close to the free throw rate he posted as a rookie and with a number that has now declined three straight seasons there doesn’t seem to be reason to have hope that will change. Evans should get a bit better as a decision maker and has been a pretty good on ball defender at times, but at the end of the day seems locked into a role as a pretty good sixth man who attacks the rim, cannot stretch the floor, and may or may not accept that role.

Omer Asik was an absolute force on defense last season individually but there are worrying signs as well. Asik had eight more of his own shots blocked this season than he had dunks, played just 26.1 minutes per game and looked completely lost more often than not in the playoffs against the Warriors. Considering that the league is starting to lean more and more towards faster quicker lineups, it remains to be seen if Asik can be a starter for a team looking to contend for a title or even how much longer his already limited athleticism is going to last. Mammoth seven footers who aren’t particularly athletic tend to fall off a cliff pretty quickly. The one thing Asik has going for him is that he hasn’t played a ton of minutes in his career which could put of that decline a bit.

As for the other players, both Cole and Pondexter shot the ball better in their partial seasons in New Orleans than they have their entire careers and it remains to be seen if that is sustainable for either. Cunningham is a career power forward who played the wing last season and may be asked to do it again going forward despite aging and never having been an overly athletic player. Alexis Ajinca may not be back but if he does return it remains to be seen if he can replicate his success as one of the best post-up player in the NBA this season.Eric Gordon turned into an essentially on dimensional player who was an elite shooter but gave the Pelicans very little else when his shot didn’t fall and Ryan Anderson should shoot better next season but is also a massive defensive liability.

The one thing that all nine players have in common is just how hard it is to see any of them suddenly jumping an entire level of play just because they are young. Considering how long each has been in the league it seems more likely that we have close to the final product of each player’s skills with some mental adjustments that come as players get older instead of seeing one of the nine make a drastic leap by adding another skill to their game. Those improvements may help the Pelicans win an extra game or two here or there but they just don’t seem to point to New Orleans suddenly becoming a contender with this same core.

That isn’t to say there is no good coming out of the Pelicans roster. Their youngest player and only superstar is still at the point where massive growth seems possible and areas where it would come are clear. As Anthony Davis gets better so will the Pelicans in general, which is why New Orleans should be fighting for a playoff spot again next season despite the Oklahoma City Thunder returning healthy and the Utah Jazz seemingly ready to make a leap behind a great defense.

In general though everything about the Pelicans continues to point towards the summer of 2017 when Evans and Holiday come off the Pelicans books and New Orleans is set to have a ton of cap room to spend. With the chance to basically remake the roster around Davis in an attempt to build a contender that may not include many of the players currently surrounding him, that summer seems to be the franchise changer for the Pelicans.

So yes the current version of the New Orleans Pelicans is young. But pretending that fact means this roster is developing into something more than a mid-range playoff team in the West at the absolute best seems to be setting yourself up for disappointment. The Pelicans very well may be who they are at this moment, a collection of flawed by fairly talented pieces that combined will have some very high highs but at the end of the day is a middle of the pack playoff team. Considering where we came from though that is a nice improvement.

Next: Ryan Anderson's season review

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