Observations from the New Orleans Pelicans 90-86 Summer League win against the Dallas Mavericks

In a very tight affair early in Day Two of the NBA Las Vegas Summer League, the New Orleans Pelicans held off the Dallas Mavericks 90-86 to move to 2-0 in the league so far. The Pelicans started the game off scorching from the field, scoring 50 points in the first 20 minutes of play. It was a good win for the youngsters and some big takeaways for those watching to look at.

Players to Watch:

Seth Curry – After the huge scoring output Seth Curry had in the first game, he cooled off quite a bit shooting the ball. Curry finished with 25 points of 9-23 shooting with five steals and six rebounds. His defense was strong the entire game, playing solid defense off ball and using his active hands to cause havoc. The shot was just not consistent for him throughout the game. The New Orleans Pelicans could still be looking for a spot-up shooter to get off the bench with Jimmer Fredette possibly not returning to the team and if Seth can show his ability to do that, he might fill that void.

Larry Drew Jr. – While Seth Curry has shown the scoring aspect of this Summer League team, Larry Drew Jr is the playmaker trying to make an NBA roster. Drew finished with nine points, six rebounds and five assists on the night, not a superb numbers performance from the previous game. His two turnovers is a decent number, since he took most of the point guard spots for his 31 minutes on the floor. He ran the offense well in the first half, yet too much dribbling from Drew stalled it a bit in the second half. That has to improve if he wants a training camp invite.

Khem Birch – The Pelicans could already be set on bigs going into next year, but Khem Birch has been a player to watch. Birch finished tonight’s game with eight points, six rebounds and two blocks. While Birch had a few decent plays, tonight did not bode well for his chances to make the Pelicans training camp invite list. He got dominated by the Mavericks bigs inside on the rebounds and shot only 3-6 from the field. Shooting 50% from the field is not going to cut it and he’ll need to have bigger games going forward.

Fuquan Edwin – The big winner coming out of tonight’s game had to be Fuquan Edwin. He finished off the bench with 14 points in just 18 minutes of playing time. He crashed the boards effectively, highlighted by a put-back jam off of a miss to spark the crowd. Being the second leading scorer of the team and showing what he can do for a Pelicans team that has some holes at wing positions going into next year does have some promise. He’s a guy to watch going into future games.

Bryce Dejean-Jones – One of the oddest players on the team is Bryce Dejean-Jones. While he did have a decent statistical game of ten points, three steals and three rebounds in 26 minutes, his overall play left a lot to be desired on the floor. He chalked up four fouls, including a few fouls that seemed unnecessary like the hack on an easy layup that resulted in an and-1 for Mavericks center Satnam Singh. While he shows big plays of potential at times, his overall game needs a lot of work before he will see a chance at the NBA level.

Other players:

The rest of the New Orleans Pelicans Summer League Roster did not really bring much to tonight’s game. Will Sheehey started off the first five minutes of the game with eight points, yet his awkward shot attempts and over-dribbling kept him on the bench for the rest of the game. Victor Rudd had an okay game, yet his 1-7 shooting night really hurt the stock he showed in the first Summer League game. He Tianju , Jarvis Varnado and Lazeric Jones each put up over ten minutes of playing time, yet didn’t show a massive upside in tonight’s game. Jordan Aboudou saw just over three minutes on the floor and missed three shots attempts in that time. Tweety Carter, Jay Hook and Gasper Vidmar did not see the floor in tonight’s game.

Team Remarks:

As a team, the New Orleans Pelicans Summer League roster saw some major flaws and some good takeaways from the game overall. Their scoring took a huge dip in the second half, scoring just 40 points in the second compared to 50. That could be from the team over-dribbling and awkward shot attempts seen throughout the game. The pace of the game went the way the Pelicans wanted, seeing a very fast-pace game throughout the night. However, the poor shooting that was highlighted by a 7-26 shooting night from the Pelicans from behind the arc really went against the pace New Orleans was looking for.

The big positive for the Pelicans to take out of this game was the free-throw shooting. New Orleans earned 24 free-throws in the game, making 21 of those. The Pelicans gave up only 15 free-throws to the Mavericks on the night, which Dallas made 12 of those. The Pelicans also did a good job managing the ball, only turning it over ten times on the night compared to 18 turnovers on the Mavericks side of the ball. Those are the kind of categories that usually make the difference in who wins the game at this level.

The area that should be looked at for improvement is the defensive glass. New Orleans got outrebounded tonight 48-35, and 10 of Dallas’ rebounds were on the offensive side of the ball. Good teams are good at boxing out and getting at long rebounds, however the Pelicans struggled to keep the Mavericks players off the long rebounds for a good portion of the second half. That has to improve.

Closing:

Going into the next game July 13th against the Brooklyn Nets, the New Orleans Pelicans Summer League team will be looking to make a closing statement and secure a BYE in the first round of the tournament scheduled after their third game. For guys like Edwin, Dejean-Jones, Curry, Drew Jr and Birch, they will be looking to continue to show the coaching staff what they could possibly do and hope to earn a camp invite. For the others, it’s about showing D-League rosters and possibly teams overseas what they can bring to their team. As a whole, the players will look to earn another win in what would be expected to be a high-scoring affair with how the Pelicans have run their offense in the first two games. They played good enough to beat the Dallas Mavericks tonight, but there’s a lot of areas of improvement that will help each players’ chances of impressing a team going forward.