New Orleans Pelicans: 5 reasons team’s hype is the real-deal

The New Orleans Pelicans have the most talent on their roster in the history of the franchise and fans should be buying into what they’re selling.

Entering the 2019-2020 NBA season, there’s a lot of excitement about what the New Orleans Pelicans could do with their remarkably talented, but mostly unproven roster.

One year after the team’s superstar demanded a trade, missed the playoffs, and finished 13th in the West, there’s a lot of optimism about what this team could do not only this year but for the next five-to-fifteen years.

In part, fans are already buying into the hype.

There’s been a record amount of season tickets purchased since the team drafted Zion Williamson with the first overall pick in the 2019 NBA Draft. Further, fans scooped up all of the free tickets for the team’s Oct. 5 open practice five full days before the scheduled event.

This city deserves a high-energy, fun-as-heck basketball team and it seems like they’re finally getting a shot to see that come into fruition. Their moves over the last few months, from the front office down through the players themselves, show all the signs of a team looking to make noise in this league for a long time.

With it being just the first year of this roster, it’s hard to envision a championship result, but it’s not unrealistic to think this team can compete for a playoff spot in a loaded Western Conference.

They’ve got perhaps the most learning to do about their team of any in the league, but at least it will be fun to watch. Plus, there are plenty of reasons to believe that they could learn to fit faster than expected.

The bench is better than it seems, thanks to rookies

When Darius Miller went down with a torn Achilles a month before training camp even started, there was some resignation that the bench wouldn’t be sturdy enough in year one of the reload.

The New Orleans Pelicans’ front office did themselves a lot of favors in the draft, loading themselves with really talented players to grow in the rotation.

Josh Hart is going to be a solid option off the bench, he found a good deal of success in that role with the Los Angeles Lakers.

Another thing you’d love to see is E’Twaun Moore ascending into a greater scoring and spacing role in the absence of Miller.

Moore is entering his ninth season in the NBA, so his game won’t so much change as it will refine. At media day, Moore expressed a desire to attempt at least 6 three-pointers per game, which would certainly be a good move considering he shot 43.2% from that territory a season ago.

While the older guys on this bench can provide a boost, having Nickeil Alexander-Walker off the bench could prove to be a healthy boost. The rookie shined in Summer Leauge action and his poise has been noted by many who keep a close eye on prospects.

Perhaps they’ll take more time to acclimate into their roles than Alexander-Walker, but Nicolò Melli and Jaxson Hayes should also be benefits to the New Orleans Pelicans’ depth.

Melli is 28-years-old and played in Europe for nine seasons before finally making the jump to the NBA, an offer he turned down just two years ago. He’s a sharp-shooter with a career 37.4% three-point rate, giving the Pelicans a big, 6’9″ floor spacing option off the pine.

While he might take a bit of time to get comfortable in the NBA, having a big guy shooting threes off the bench is something Alvin Gentry utilized well with Nikola Mirotić.

For Hayes, it’s going to be an incredibly interesting season. Drafted eighth overall, the 7-footer blew expectations out of the water at Summer League, looking like he could be a huge impact off the bench, if not contend for starting minutes at the end of the season.

No matter what, if this team can rely on their bench for spacing and scoring, they’re putting themselves in a good position. They’re setting themselves up with a bench that can gel in Alvin Gentry’s high-tempo system.

Lonzo Ball is ready to turn the corner for the New Orleans Pelicans

One of the key pieces of the massive trade package the New Orleans Pelicans received from the Lakers was the tremendous prospect of 21-year-old point guard Lonzo Ball.

While Ball hasn’t had the instant-impact effect in the NBA some had expected, Alvin Gentry’s high-tempo system might allow him to mature into a much more effective player.

So far, he’s had a pretty solid, yet undaunting career, averaging 10 points, 6.4 assists, and 6.2 rebounds in 99 total games.

No matter what, Ball needs to improve as a shooter. He’s just a career 43.7% shooter from the strip and that rate was 41.7% during the ’18-’19 season. Shooting a 46.1% effective field goal rate and 31.5% from three, he’s left a lot to be desired in the shooting department so far.

In the team’s Twitter videos from practice, Lonzo is doing all the right things. His shot looks very smooth and he’s stroking threes with ease.

Plus it seems like he’s done great things in transition with Zion Williamson.

Getting Ball to buy-in wasn’t even difficult. Around last year’s trade deadline, there were reports that if the Lakers wanted to flip Ball to New Orleans, he would strongly prefer to be rerouted. That doesn’t seem to be the case now that he’s with the organization.

Seemingly finding comfort with the New Orleans Pelicans early, Ball has two full years on his deal before he’ll even hit restricted free agency. He’ll have a good amount of time to show the city and team what he’s got in the tank.

Lonzo is ready to turn the corner; it might not happen right out of the gate, but his leap has the potential to change his narrative with positive play throughout the 2019-2020 season.

Favors, Holiday, and Redick are great veterans

On a team with so many young players, including at least four first-year players on their roster, they’ll need veterans to lean on when the going gets tough.

If you drew the names of three veterans out of a hat and got Derrick Favors, Jrue Holiday, and J.J. Redick, you’d feel like you hit the mini lottery.

All three will likely be called on as starters on opening night. Unless Gentry thinks Ball is a better fit next to Holiday in starting lineups or health gets in the way, it’ll probably stay that way for most of the year.

Holiday is going to be the rock for this team. They’ll lean on him when times get tough and they’ll thrive with him when their motors are churning.

New to the city but entering his fourteenth year in the NBA, J.J. Redick is the oldest New Orleans Pelicans player by four full years. His goal is to make the playoffs again, a mark he’s never missed in his career.

Interestingly, Favors requested to be traded to New Orleans this offseason, so he’s probably excited to start making an impression with a new franchise.

Favors will provide a sturdy interior presence alongside Zion Williamson, allowing the rookie to get better looks in the paint.

These guys can be pillars of a playoff team, but the New Orleans Pelicans have a roster where they can play better team basketball if their veterans find comfort in a smaller role. Not to say the trio should sacrifice any shots, but none of them is going to be asked to play hero ball.

The Zion Williamson rookie season is going to be transcendent

Zion Williamson hype is real folks.

The organization gets its second shot at a transcendent talent, but this time, they’ve got one that’s built perfectly for the city of New Orleans.

Many people talk about the person of Zion before they even talk about the player. He’s an electrifying basketball player, but his heart is potentially his greatest asset.

With jump-out-of-the-gym athleticism, we’re going to talk a lot about the gravity-defying dunks Williamson draws up this season. He’s already destroying the rim at New Orleans Pelicans training camp.

It’s just not the residents of New Orleans feeling the Zion hype. The 19-year-old standout is starting to build quite the portfolio before he plays his first game of NBA basketball.

Already inking endorsement deals with Jordan Brand, Gatorade, Panini Trading Cards, and 2K Sports, Zion is being looked to by brands as a key client heading into the next decade.

While it’s a lot of expectation to put on such a young player, the way he’s looked in practice and at Duke leaves an audience wondering how high his ceiling is, considering his floor already feels pretty high off the ground.

He probably has the highest ceiling of any active player in the league, perhaps aside from the master abandoner, Anthony Davis. It’s incredible that the Pelicans get an opportunity to have a prospect like Zion, but it will be important for the team to keep building a winning culture with him in mind.

The New Orleans Pelicans have the firepower to beat anyone on any night

They’re not setting their expectations too high too early, but there’s a tone coming from this club that sounds encouraging for the win-loss column.

It’s hard to imagine they’ll be even close to as bad as they were a season ago. They went 33-49 and finished in 13th place in the Western Conference… amid the best player in their franchise’s history actively making a mess out of his demand for a trade.

In the months since, they’ve loaded their roster with the talent that Davis desired around him for essentially his entire tenure in New Orleans.

The success of their starting five will have a lot do with the relationship built between Zion Williamson and Jrue Holiday, as their movement will allow the rest of the Pelicans on the floor to create way more space.

While floor spacing may be an issue at times for this team, they have a ton of guys who are more than capable scorers. Having a roster of dudes who can go get a basket usually works in a team’s favor.

They’ve played no regular-season basketball together quite yet, but there’s certainly a lot of excitement about their opening night game against the Toronto Raptors. It’ll be our first chance to see what kind of spark this team will have during the 2019-2020 NBA season.