Sep 29, 2014; New Orleans, LA, USA; New Orleans Pelicans center Alexis Ajinca (42) poses for a photo during the Pelicans media day at the New Orleans Pelicans practice facility. Mandatory Credit: Crystal LoGiudice-USA TODAY Sports
Throughout his tenure as general manager of the New Orleans Pelicans, Dell Demps has done a fantastic job at finding value in moves for players that are looked at as back of the rotation type guys. While Anthony Morrow, Luke Babbitt and Brian Roberts have all delivered well above their contracts while playing with the Pelicans, perhaps no value signing has been better for Demps than French big man Alexis Ajinca, who joined the team in December of 2013.
At that time Ajinca was signed as essentially a lottery ticket big man who earned his NBA deal after a great showing at Eurobasket that summer and continued it into his European club season. With the Pelicans struggling with injuries and just generally being weak at the center spot, Demps took a gamble and brought the former failed first round pick back to the NBA.
Since that point Ajinca has done everything to prove that he belongs, culminating in earning a four-year $20 million contract with the Pelicans this offseason. Ajinca did it with hard work, turning his incredible length, he has a 7-foot 9-inch wingspan, and great touch into a deadly combination in the post.
There are some flaws still remaining though and they were big enough to probably cost Ajinca a chance to start somewhere in the league. Despite that enormous wingspan, Ajinca tends to get caught fouling way too often which limits the minutes he can play significantly. Ajinca is also fairly slow which tends to create some significant problems for him in up-tempo games, evidenced by his disappearing act in the Pelicans playoff series against the Golden State Warriors.
All of that said, there are plenty of reasons to be excited about Ajinca going forward and he was good enough to rank at number eight in our Pelicans rank project so he is clearly a net positive. To round out Alexis Ajinca day the staff gathered together to talk post scoring, defense and more regarding Ajinca.
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