It’s tough to stay caught up on all of the New Orleans Pelicans news from across the country and across the internet. Never fear, we have you caught up on everything from the week of September 5th.
Can the Pelicans keep Anthony Davis happy?
The Ringer’s Kevin O’Connor looks here at if the New Orleans Pelicans did enough over the summer to please their superstar as he enters the first year of a contract extension. With to-the-point write-ups on every acquired player and video collections of some of the more interesting players, O’Connor does a great job analyzing how and why the collection of guys might work together to help the Pelicans improve.
Notable statistics include: the Pelicans were third worst in corner three-point percentage and allowed the highest catch-and-shoot three-point percentage on defense. Solomon Hill shot 39.4% from the corners in Indiana last season. And somehow, Alexis Ajinca allowed a mere 48.9% on field goals when he was defending at the rim. If anything, those numbers are reason to believe that anyone could fix the Pelicans and make AD happy; replacement-level basketball players ought to fix boneheaded mistakes that cause such ghastly numbers.
Finally, some Buddy Love; O’Connor runs through the multitude of reasons that Hield can grow into the sort of home-grown complementary piece that small markets need to survive. His Summer League performance was reason for optimism, but the road has yet to be paved.
30 Teams in 30 Days
NBA.com’s Shaun Powell has been making the rounds this month, tackling a review of a new team’s overall outlook each day. Last Tuesday, the Pelicans’ turn came around, with Powell broadcasting a decisively down take on the team:
"“Nobody can still get a grip on what happened to the franchise in 2015-16. Yes, the Pelicans had injuries … but what else is new. Nonetheless, they crashed, taking All-Star Anthony Davis with them (he didn’t register enough honors to trigger the Derrick Rose clause in his contract) and took a step backward.”"
Uh… No, it really was injuries, Shaun. Installing a new system on both sides of the ball with a rotating cast of players who are only mildly healthy even when they are on the court is an excuse, yes, but a good one. Every coaching change takes time to gel, and when you sign your opening night point guard a week before the season, you’re fighting an uphill battle from the start.
Powell also took the time to critique the Omer Asik and Alexis Ajinca contracts, the re-signing of Eric Gordon in restricted free agency four years ago, and the franchise’s decision to keep Dell Demps. Overall, a pretty “blah” way to start your week as a Pelicans fan, but diversity of opinion is key to having an intelligent opinion of your team.
Pelicans release NBA All-Star Game Logo
After 2008’s heavy Jazz- Mardi Gras-influenced logo and 2014’s fleur de logo, the NBA’s planners came out with this year’s symbol, an ode to… the Pelicans? That logo sure looks a lot like the one we’ve come to love for our favorite New Orleanian basketball franchise, no?
Related Story: Pelicans benefit from uncomfortable All-Star situation
Either way, take the time to say another quick thanks to the basketball gods for allowing the city to nab its third hosting opportunity in eight years. In an odd turn of events, the Pelicans will benefit and hopefully take the opportunity to celebrate a rejuvenated team and a surprising season with the whole country watching this February.
Offseason Roundtable from Today’s Fastbreak
Writers Andrew Ford, Kelly Scaletta, and Jason Patt went 3-on-5 to take a look at the New Orleans Pelicans’ offseason. They all felt right about how we do at Pelican Debrief: that the team took a step in the right direction, but with various concerns still lingering (the center position, health, and Jrue Holiday), there is reason to believe improvement might not be all that pronounced.
Related Story: E'Twaun Moore prepares to play more PG
Scaletta and Patt in particular were bullish on the E’Twaun Moore signing, while Ford looked more toward the draft as reason for optimism. In all, the three writers had a “show me” mentality about the team, which is fair. However, I am more inclined to believe all of the question marks in the front court can coalesce into a major positive for a team who struggled to find production out of its bigs last season. If Anthony Davis can make that leap we’ve been hoping for, the centers can bounce back, and Terrence Jones works out, going small becomes a luxury rather than a necessity and this whole thing works a lot more nicely.
Next: Pelicans equipped to handle Lance Stephenson
As far as general outlook, I’m inclined to side more with Scaletta here, who believes the Pelicans will finish with around 40 wins and have a shot at reclaiming the eight seed. We’ll have more projections and speculation headed your way as September and October roll along, but I know that I personally am quite bullish on the team’s odds of celebrating pure improvement.