New Orleans Pelicans Summer League: Game 1 Observations

The New Orleans Pelicans opened their action in the Las Vegas Summer League on Friday afternoon with a win over the Milwaukee Bucks. New Orleans got off to a hot start to build a big lead and then held off a few Bucks runs to control the game throughout and get a win in their opener 101-89. New Orleans was led by 30 points from Seth Curry but they got contributions from plenty of other spots on the floor. I planned to have this post up on Friday afternoon but some real life stuff got in the way, that said here are some observations beyond just the box score from my watching of that game in no particular order.

Seth Curry isn’t the only guy who should be considered for the Pelicans roster.

I was really impressed with the way Larry Drew III controlled the game on the offensive end of the floor. Drew finished with only six assists but he did a great job of continuously drawing defenders and finding open shooters, especially in the corner. It is only one game but I could be convinced that he is more worthy of a roster spot going forward than Jimmer Fredette or Toney Douglas. The defense does need some work though.

This team is going to run.

We expected it but we saw in this game that New Orleans will be much more uptempo this year and it should be fun. The sets they used were very creative and used a ton of ball screens which should also be fun. Watching Khem Birch run on the break made it hard not to start imagining Anthony Davis filling the lane which made it hard to stop wishing it was October already.

Curry can score.

We knew it would happen but Seth Curry showed he can score. I get the idea of using him at point guard since that is his NBA position but I would have rather seen him work almost exclusively off-ball. If he does make the Pelicans and plays it will likely be alongside bigger guards like Jrue Holiday or Tyreke Evans who will do all the handling. We need to see Seth defend and take advantage of spot-up shots to see if he is worthy of a roster spot. As for when he played point guard, it was fine with some good and bad decisions mixed in throughout the night. It needs work but there is hope and he looked like an NBA player.

Victor Rudd is something.

I have no idea how to feel about Victor Rudd. He brought great energy and athleticism for the Pelicans and was all over the floor all night. Yet the way he did things was awkward and didn’t look necessarily NBA level. The Pelicans don’t need him as a small ball four this year but it will be interesting to see if he gets an NBA gig somewhere.

Get aboard my Fuquan Edwin bandwagon.

This may be a bit of my home state bias showing through but Fuquan Edwin sure looks like a decent rotation player to me at times. He can defend on the wing and while there were some fouls in there that need to be cleaned up it was easy to see why he was a member of the First Team All-Defense in the D-League this season. If he makes more threes you won’t stop hearing me say he should be on the Pelicans radar for that end of the roster spot that can be opened by jettisoning Toney Douglas or Jimmer. Though the need for a wing player is lessened with Alonzo Gee entering things.

I’m not buying He Tianju

I know that it was the first game and he has a ton going on but He Tianju just didn’t defend well enough or do much besides score well enough to get me to buy into him as an NBA player. Maybe he does going forward but it was kind of ugly when he was not shooting to me.

Next: Rick's Thoughts on the Second Win

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New Orleans Pelicans Summer League: Late Observations from Game One

By Matt Cianfrone | Jul 13, 2015