Including celebrated rookie Zion Williamson, the New Orleans Pelicans have a healthy portion of former Duke Blue Devils, but some have more to prove than others heading into the 2019-2020 NBA season.
Roster construction in the NBA is a funny thing, but David Griffin and the Pelicans’ front office really took a liking to a certain college when it came to filling out their squad. The new-look Pelicans retooled this offseason to give themselves a better outlook for the future, which, on paper, they’ve done with flying colors.
Notable on this roster are the five Duke Blue Devils prepared to suit up for New Orleans entering the 2019-2020 season. All playing under coach Mike Krzyzewski, none of the five ever played alongside each other under the record-setting Duke play-caller.
Considering Duke is one of the powerhouses of college basketball and often draws multiple top-20 recruits, it’s unsurprising that a lot of Coach K’s players end up on NBA rosters. It’s somewhat surprising, however, to have a third of an active roster all attend the same school.
Having such an array of Duke guys is interesting. Duke draws a lot of incredible talent to their basketball program, which is interesting to see the Pelicans acknowledging in their roster formation.
There’s also a fair amount of critical talent on this roster that attended the university, not just some guys at the back of the bench, Zion Williamson, Brandon Ingram, Frank Jackson, Jahlil Okafor, and JJ Reddick are all alumni of the prestigious Durham, North Carolina educational institution.
Interestingly, none of the five crossed paths as members of the Blue Devils basketball organization. This does make some sense, considering four-out-of-five were one-and-done guys, entering the draft after a season in blue.
While Reddick is entering the last few chapters of an epic career, the other four were selected by various clubs in each of the last five seasons, so they’re just starting to get their feet wet in the NBA.
Arguably, the team’s two most important players spent their college careers at Duke: Williamson and Ingram. The tandem of star forwards has high expectations headed into next season, just like they did as top-three recruits coming into college. Williamson has more of a runway, while Ingram is entering the crucial final fourth and final year of his rookie deal.
There are 23 current Duke Blue Devils in the NBA, which means the Pelicans have a 21.7% share of all their top-tier professionals. So, let’s take an inventory of which former Devil-turned-Pel has the most on the line entering the season.
5. JJ Redick – Class of 2006
This is not JJ Redick’s first rodeo. Entering his 14th year of professional basketball, the 35-year-old has the least to prove of any Pelicans player entering the season.
One of the Pelicans’ select veteran additions this offseason, Redick is in New Orleans to be a solidifying force, not a rampant scorer added to score 30 points a game. He’ll likely be the first option off the bench, play around 25 minutes a night, and hit some big shots along the way.
Last season as a member of the Philadelphia 76ers, Redick was just an all-time crazy shot from Kawhi Leonard away from making a trip to the Eastern Conference Finals. Along the way, he averaged 18.1 points, 2.7 assists, and shot 39.7% from three-point range.
It seemed like somewhat of a surprise move for Redick to sign on with the Pelicans after having so much success with the 76ers over the last two seasons. His two-year, $26.5 million deal this July gave the Pelicans one of the all-time great three-point shooters in the history of the game.
Simply put, he’s had a great career so far, so even if he falls off this season, no one will ask too many questions of the sharpshooter. Whatever happens with Reddick this season, his presence should have a calming effect, particularly on such a young roster.
Redick is one of the first guys in this league to think about the media impact he can have while still playing the game. He hosts The JJ Redick Podcast at The Ringer, so he could have a huge impact on someone like Zion, a player who may have a lot of multimedia opportunities as he progresses through his career.
4. Frank Jackson – Class of 2017
Frank Jackson shouldn’t have too much to worry about this season, as long as he keeps up the progress made during his rookie campaign. He’s one of the select few holdovers from last year’s squad and his spot on the roster seems safe for at least this season.
Selected 31st in the 2017 NBA Draft, Jackson is a relatively fresh 21-year-old talent in the league. Considering he missed his entire rookie season after undergoing foot surgery, Jackson did a nice job kicking his career into gear during his first full campaign.
He played solid basketball last season, averaging 8.1 points, 2.2 rebounds, and 1.1 assists. He appeared in 61 games, starting in 16, but mostly had a reserve role where he averaged around 19.2 minutes per night.
His last ten games of the 2018-2019 season went really well, even though the team was playing somewhat meaningless basketball at the time; he actually started the last nine games of the season. He averaged 17.2 points and shot 44.4% from the floor, but still struggled to set-up teammates with only 2.1 assists per game, playing around 33.5 minutes over the span.
Jackson also did have a pretty nice summer league, playing well in a role as a lead ballhandler in the Pelicans offense. He broke out and scored the ball really well, looking like he could even make a significant jump this season.
While Jackson leaves something to be desired as a passer, he’s a solid backup point guard option for the New Orleans Pelicans, who have really good distributors in Lonzo Ball and Jrue Holiday ahead of him in rank.
It’s not all free and easy for Jackson. He’s on a team building for the future, one he could either be a part of or easily traded for the right package. Jackson does have to prove he can be more than a game manager as a point guard and start being a little more clever in his facilitation. Fortunately, he has a lot more targets this season than he did for most of the 2018-2019 rendition of the Pels roster.
Jackson’s season mainly comes down to his ability to be solid. It’s unlikely we’ll see a huge leap from the young talent, but if he can keep the offense steady behind Ball, he’s setting himself up for success in his second full season.
3. Zion Williamson – Class of 2019
There’s certainly a layer of pressure on every number one pick. Players like Williamson only arrive about once a decade, so the anticipation will naturally create some amount of stress to play solid hoop out of the gate.
He turned 19-years-old on July 6th, which means he still wasn’t born when a high school JJ Redick was reviewing the offer letters that would eventually make him a Duke Blue Devil. While Redick played a full four years of college ball, Zion left for an amazing NBA opportunity after just one season in blue.
The highly-touted rookie just has to be good this season; not great, not excellent, just good. Surely, fans will want to see highlight-reel dunks and blocks, which is a favor Williamson is fully capable of delivering. Fans will hope for Rookie of the Year nods, but it really comes down to the development of this exciting prospect.
What will be important for the rookie is to make sure he can keep up with the physicality of the NBA. He’s incredibly strong and destroyed many college basketball defenders last season, but now he’ll be competing against the LeBron James and Kawhi Leonard-types of the world.
If Zion shows that he can hang against other starters in this league, Pelicans fans should have a lot to be excited about for the next handful of years.
Zion doesn’t need to set the world on fire right out of the gate; no one should expect him to be LeBron, Michael Jordan, or Charles Barkley during his rookie season. Instead, they should just keep their eyes on the development of a player who could revolutionize what basketball means to New Orleans.
The pressure isn’t super high for Zion this season. For far too long, New Orleans has been in the bottom tier of NBA teams; a move towards the middle will be a big stride for a franchise that’s never been graced with a Larry O’Brien trophy, let alone an appearance in an NBA Finals. While Duke has five National Championships to their name; any team should strive for that kind of standing.
2. Brandon Ingram – Class of 2016
Brandon Ingram was selected second overall by the Los Angeles Lakers in 2016, some calling him the next Kevin Durant. He’s struggled to live all the way up to the hype in the NBA, but is still a very good player in this league.
Ingram is 6’9″ with a 7’3″ wingspan, which is pretty great overall length for a small forward in this league. He does lack in weight, stepping on the scale around 190 LBS, which hurts his ability to play physical basketball against bigger defenders.
His three seasons in Los Angeles were far from bad and at times, it really looked like he was making a leap into the All-Star stratosphere. However, Ingram’s development seemed to take a hit last season when he was forced to play a smaller role next to LeBron James. It made sense, LeBron is the second-greatest player in the history of the sport and demands the ball in his hands; that model just doesn’t help someone like Ingram create with the rock at his highest potential.
Last season in Los Angeles, the creative forward scored 18.3 points per contest, averaging 5.1 rebounds and 3 rebounds over 51 games.
Instead of the drama-fueled Lakers, Ingram finds himself in a situation to develop alongside a bunch of young guys who all seem to love basketball.
While Ingram has the tape to prove he’s been a really good player in this league, he’s due for a new contract after the season, so his performance will gauge whether or not he’s going to be worth a max deal.
There’s also long-term injury concern for the young forward. He was sidelined for the final 19 games of last season when team doctors discovered dangerous blood clots in Ingram’s arm. Considering it’s such a scary injury, seeing how well Ingram has recovered will be an important situation to monitor to start the season.
There’s a chance Ingram and Williamson could be a dominant duo in the NBA if their development goes well in New Orleans. Ingram could prove his value to the franchise this season and sign a big deal, or it could go not so great leaving him to pack his bags in the offseason.
1. Jahlil Okafor – Class of 2015
Ranked the No. 1 prospect out of high school by both ESPN and 247 Sports, the former Blue Devil standout Jahlil Okafor has not had a fruitful NBA career up to this point. After having the final year of his team option declined by the Philadelphia 76ers in 2018, then forcing a trade to the Brooklyn Nets to finish that season, he found a spot on the New Orleans roster on a two-year minimum contract last offseason. The former Duke standout simply hasn’t lived up to the hype.
Considering he’s only playing for a minimum deal, one that expires after the season, the Pelicans front office have no reason not to send him packing if he doesn’t play well this season. He’ll be playing for his career this season in New Orleans.
While he arguably had the best season of his career with the Pels last year, he didn’t really prove anything other than being fully capable of being a bench center; that’s far from the ceiling some envisioned for the former third overall pick.
Last season in New Orleans, Okafor averaged 8.2 points and 4.7 rebounds, appearing in 59 games. While those numbers aren’t terrible, they aren’t impressive enough to make the center invaluable to the Pelicans roster. He did put together some really nice games in the absence of Anthony Davis and played a much more competent brand of defense than in seasons past.
At any time over the next nine months, the Pelicans could decide to move Summer League standout Jaxson Hayes into the backup center role behind Derrick Favors. In a league that’s trending towards small-ball, there are very few minutes to give to a third center when better scoring options exist off the bench.
Despite the fact that he’s just entering his fifth season of professional basketball, the stakes have never been higher for Okafor. If he fails to perform this season, it could very well be the end of the line for the former third-overall selection. The former Duke player might find himself making a college player’s salary if he doesn’t have a solid showing this year.