New Orleans Pelicans All-Time Franchise Team: Backup Center
Sep 30, 2013; Metairie, LA, USA; A detail of a New Orleans Pelicans logo poses for a portrait at Pelicans Practice Facility. Mandatory Credit: Derick E. Hingle-USA TODAY Sports
Rick (@RickStoneNBA): Jamal Magloire
The backup center position gets real tricky. The remaining centers are a list of players that didn’t pan our or were traded like Emeka Okafor, Robin Lopez and Chris Kaman. So the selection had to be the only center in New Orleans to be on an All-Star team…Jamaal Magloire. He was on the team before the move to the bayou, however only stayed three years in New Orleans before moving on in his NBA career.
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In his three seasons playing for New Orleans, Jamaal Magloire put up some very respectable numbers. Those three years were the only three seasons in Magloire’s career that he averaged over 10 points per game. Along with that, he never had a season in New Orleans where he grabbed less than eight rebounds a game or blocked less than a shot per game. In his All-Star season in 2003-2004, Magloire scored 13.6 points, hauled in 10.3 rebounds, blocked 1.2 shots and worked for 3.3 offensive rebounds per game.
When it came to playoff production, Jamaal Magloire made solid contributions for New Orleans. In two playoff series, Magloire averaged at least 11 points per game in both years, at least eight rebounds in both and blocked at least one shot per game. While New Orleans was never able to win a series with Magloire on the roster, they totaled three wins over two years with the big man holding down the paint. Scoring wise, he could have been the best center in franchise history if he had a longer stay.
While Jamaal Magloire didn’t have the length of tenure guys like Okafor had, he made a huge impact on the team with his play and pushed the team farther than Okafor could do. His double-double threat night in and night out helped give balance to a young team dealing with a new atmosphere and keep them in postseason play for the first few years in New Orleans. While the case could be made for other centers in franchise history to be at this spot, Jamaal Magloire was an underrated talent in New Orleans basketball history and established himself as quite the threat inside during his time on the floor.
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