New Orleans Pelicans are mired in mediocrity

After 14 games of this NBA season, we know just as much about the New Orleans Pelicans as we did when the season started. That’s actually not much at all.

Will the real New Orleans Pelicans please stand up? Well, do we know who they really are? At this point it’s anyone’s guess.

We have often heard the phrase, a tale of two halves. With the Pelicans it’s usually a tale of two games. How exactly can a team who looked like world beaters against an elite team like the Toronto Raptors suddenly look like a bottom feeder against a struggling Minnesota Timberwolves squad?

Inconsistent play, turnovers, and injuries have been the flavor of the month. Already into this young NBA season Anthony Davis, Nikola Mirotic, and Elfrid Payton have all missed multiple games due to injury. Mirotic seemed to tweak that right ankle sprain seconds left in the loss to Minnesota.

The Pelicans hope to have starting point guard Elfrid Payton back sooner rather than later. No person would benefit more from his return than Jrue Holiday. The weight of having to guard the opposition’s best wing player as well as be the primary ball handler on offense looks like it took its toll on Holiday Wednesday night.

After shutting down Phoenix Suns star guard Devin Booker and then putting the clamps on Toronto Raptors all-star Kyle Lowry for an encore, Jrue’s energy seemed especially low when trying to stay in front of Wolves guard Jeff Teague. Teague was able to maneuver his way inside the lane at will and wreak havoc on the defense to a tune of his season high 14 assists.

Jrue at times, especially on the offensive end, looked tired and his shot was severely affected. He finished the evening with 14 points on 18 shot attempts. When Jrue starts to press then the flow of the offense becomes affected.

That aspect can be seen in the turnover battle. The Pelicans are in the bottom third in turnovers in the league at about 15.5 a game. Turnovers are killer as they took away the potential for scoring and most often lead to easy baskets for the opposition.

Couple that with the fact the Pelicans are fourth worse in the NBA at opponent points per game, giving up over 115 points, and you have a recipe for disaster. A recipe for a mediocre team.

All is not lost however. You would expect at some point the team will return to full strength. That has definitely been a plus when that has happened because the Pelicans have gone 4-1 when fully healthy.

The Pelicans have also been able to protect home court, only losing one game this season (without Anthony Davis mind you) and see to especially feed on the home crowd support.

The New Orleans Pelicans still have 68 games to prove what team they really are. Right now it seems like a stagnant caterpillar stuck into a cocoon. Maybe that cocoon will birth a beautiful free-spirited butterfly.