The 10 things we’ve learned about the New Orleans Pelicans through 10 games

The New Orleans Pelicans are off to a 2-8 start, which is not where this team anticipated being when they set expectations this offseason.

When New Orleans Pelicans’ Executive VP of Basketball David Griffin reset this team’s roster in the offseason, there was a lot made of the potential from the talented young bunch. However talented they are this season, it’s not yet working correctly in the win-loss column.

After pulling what’s been an increasingly common trend, a second-half collapse in last night’s 116-122 home loss to the Houston Rockets last night, the Pelicans wrapped-up their first ten games of the year to the tune of a 2-8 opening run.

Currently, the New Orleans Pelicans are the third-worst team in the NBA, per Tankathon, and it’s hard to see how this thing gets better before Zion Williamson‘s return sometime in December.

While the team is getting a lot out of Brandon Ingram in the interim, they’ve been a disaster on the defensive end and don’t yet look like a team who knows how to win.

Granted, they’ve been met with more injuries than they’ve been able to keep up with, an unfortunate trend that Griffin tried to buck by hiring Aaron Nelson as the team’s VP of Player Care and Performance.

Jrue Holiday missed time with knee pain. Derrick Favors missed a few for the same reason. Lonzo Ball has missed two straight with an adductor injury. Ingram took a shot to the noggin early in the season then missed yesterday’s game with ankle pain. Zion is still recovering from a knee injury.  Even Jaxson Hayes exited the second half of the Rockets game with pain.

This team is having a hard time staying healthy through ten games, which means they’re going to have a harder time learning to play together on the back end. Familiarity creates victories in positive situations; look at the San Antonio Spurs dynastic run with Gregg Popovich if you want proof.

To summarize, the New Orleans Pelicans aren’t off to the start fans really wanted, even though this team was never going to be an early finals contender.

Zion Williamson is probably the best player on the team, even as the New Orleans Pelicans await his debut

There’s really no telling where this team could be with Zion Williamson back on the floor, but of course, he’s not available so it’s not a reality.

When Zion was healthy during the preseason, he was absolutely electric. Now, the team has to wait for him to play real and meaningful basketball while his knee returns to full health. Certainly, the team stands the right to be overly-cautious with the young phenom.

While he’ll certainly want to get back sooner than they’ll probably want, the team is wise to continue their cautious approach, considering the rookie’s potential to be a future great.

The team could really, really, really use Zion Williamson’s burst as the New Orleans Pelicans’ season continues to spiral into deeper and darker depths of disappointment.

In the preseason, casual fans will recall the electric dunks, big scoring lines, and star factor in just about every way you’d want from a player of his stature.

What we saw from Zion made the New Orleans Pelicans seem closer to the prize than they’ve been in the first ten games. His offensive creativity, a blend of phenomenal finishing, inquisitive passing, and

Truly, it feels like until Zion returns, this thing isn’t going to get better.

Until then, this team is going to go as far as their older players can go, which right now doesn’t look like a very long distance. Seemingly, this team is depending a lot on the impact of a 19-year-old player.

Brandon Ingram has gone up a level and looks like a future with the New Orleans Pelicans as the co-star on a highly competitive playoff team

When David Griffin decided to deal with Brandon Ingram’s contract in the offseason instead of at the rookie scale extension deadline, he basically called upon the fourth-year man to go get his bag.

That’s working with flying colors so far in Ingram’s start with the New Orleans Pelicans.

Making his ascension to All-Star, potentially even All-NBA status, Ingram is looking like a great steal in the overall haul the team received in the Anthony Davis swap.

It’s helped that he’s shot the heck out of the basketball, starting the season shooting 53.7% from the field, 46.9% from three, and 72% from the free-throw line.

Per 36 minutes, Ingram is averaging 29 points, 8.2 rebounds, 4.4 assists, and 1 block, but his impact goes way beyond numbers.

The New Orleans Pelicans have found a key man on offense in Ingram, who continues to make the right play with the ball in his hands. Ingram looks more comfortable with the ball in his hands than Lonzo to start the season and Holiday hasn’t been able to find much consistency.

While the team would like to see him improve from his 3.1 turnovers per game (he averages 2.5 for his career), they’ve been able to trust Ingram to create scoring opportunities.

So effective in nine games with the Pelicans, it seems like the sky could truly be the limit from Ingram, whose career seemed in jeopardy due to blood clots less than a year ago. Instead of out of the league, he’s on the first All-Star run of his career.

The New Orleans Pelicans aren’t close to being a playoff team

Starting the season 2-8 is a pretty good indicator for a lot of teams, but this team is pretty far from being ready to make the leap into the Western Conference Playoffs.

So far, aside from the Denver Nuggets, the Pelicans have been out-classed by the more elite playoff-level teams they’ve faced, while still not being able to stick with teams they should be able to at least keep on an even playing field.

When they played the Houston Rockets on Tuesday, they stuck around in the first half, but then were blown away when Mike D’Antoni came out with his second-half adjustments.

Compounded by their league-worst scoring defense, allowing 122.4 points per game and allowing opponents to shoot 46.7% from the floor, the New Orleans Pelicans are having a hard time even staying in games.

There’s more to say about Jrue Holiday than this, but he’s simply been very disappointing for this team after being called on as a leader in the offseason.

Granted, Derrick Favors has left a lot to be desired from his own game, another player this team would’ve hoped to add more early. Favors is averaging 7.6 points and 8 rebounds after coming over in a trade from the Utah Jazz during the offseason.

On media day, the playoff conversation came up with players, coaches, and front office personnel over and over again, but right now, this team doesn’t look close to that mix.

They’re currently being given a 15% chance to make the playoffs by Five Thirty-Eight, who also project the team to finish 36-46 after their metrics showed an optimistic outlook in the preseason.

Jrue Holiday has lost a step, maybe more

Entering the year, many, including David Griffin, were looking on Jrue Holiday to step up as an All-NBA, or even MVP-level player for the New Orleans Pelicans. Instead, he’s looked a little slower and less effective than any season in recent memory.

Granted, he missed two games early in the season with knee soreness, but you’d have to assume Jrue is feeling alright if the team is playing him 35 minutes a night.

Jrue perhaps is looking out of sync with his new teammates, but there’s something in his game that just doesn’t reflect the player we’ve come to expect in New Orleans. His 14.6 points, 7.3 assists, and 5.4 rebounds don’t seem terrible, but his 12.1 PER hints at the bigger picture.

This season, the Pelicans are -10.3 with Holiday on the floor and are 12.3 better with him out of the lineup. He’s also averaging 2.9 turnovers, but they haven’t fallen on particularly forgivable plays.

Reflected best over the early season stretch by his 6 turnovers, all coming in the first half on Monday against the Houston Rockets.

He’s not finding the bottom of the net, or at least not making it look easy. He’s shooting a truly troubling 36.4% from the field and a red-alert 23.3% from three-point range.

Despite his poor touch from three this season, Holiday is still shooting 5.4 threes per contest, the same career-high volume he shot a season ago, still shooting a discouraging 33.2% clip from that range during the 2018-2019 season.

Once upon a time, Jrue Holiday attributed his staying with the New Orleans Pelicans to be almost entirely based on their contracting of Anthony Davis. Not playing well without AD in the fold, Holiday might find himself out of the Pelicans’ future plans.

All of this could be alleviated with the return of Zion Williamson. After all, Holiday’s had his best moments playing alongside another generational talent.

The New Orleans Pelicans REALLY need more out of Holiday if they want any shot to salvage this season. If he keeps playing as he has through 8 games, this team will not find a way to sustain winning.

Signed this offseason on a two-year deal, the New Orleans Pelicans are lucky to have J.J. Redick

The New Orleans Pelicans are really lucky to have J.J. Redick. It’s worth saying twice and hammering home because he’s been a huge offensive factor and great influencer of his young teammates to start his run with the Pels.

With the Philadelphia 76ers, Redick provided a veteran leader combined with impressive on-court performance, boosting his value for the Pelicans this offseason.

So far, he’s had good returns on the 2-yr., $26 million contract the New Orleans Pelicans sent his way in free agency.

Averaging 12.1 points and shooting 45.5% from three-point range on 6.8 attempts, Redick has done everything the Pelicans would’ve hoped, even if Alvin Gentry is only playing him 24.9 minutes a night.

Redick looks like the same player we’ve known him to be for a pretty good stretch of years. He’s active on the offensive end, which creates so much space for his teammates, thus creating ball movement and easy looks for all on the roster.

Rarely will you find a player as selfless on the floor as Redick, who is a huge positive on offense and is plenty capable of masking his sometimes-lacking defensive abilities.

He stands 6’3″, 200 LBS but with a negative wingspan, Redick has made the most as an undersized player throughout his career, never missing the playoffs in his thirteen-year run.

Playing increasingly well as he finds comfort with his teammates, Redick is someone who could solidify a lot of this team’s rotation if they were interested in him playing more minutes as a starter. The New Orleans Pelicans should strongly consider adjusting Redick to a bigger role.

Alvin Gentry isn’t doing the right things for the New Orleans Pelicans in games and it doesn’t seem like he’s getting them ready to play.

Alvin Gentry has coached his New Orleans Pelicans to a 2-8 start and his coaching performance is reflective of the outcome.

It seems like Alvin Gentry is getting out-coached every single night, perhaps sans the team’s lone quality win over Mike Malone and the Denver Nuggets on Halloween. Even against the lowly Charlotte Hornets, it took the Pelicans four quarters and a 115-110 finish to knock-off the James Borrego team.

Nothing about this Pelicans team seems well-coached, perhaps with the exception of the Chris Finch-led offense, who could very well be the interim head coach if this thing keeps spiraling.

Considering this team has played 13 total players in their ten games so far this year, Gentry’s had the capability of playing 156 different lineup combinations, which would be far too many to make a team consistent. Per NBA Advanced Stats, Alvin Gentry has tried 155 of 156 possible lineup combinations through ten games.

The sample size on the season isn’t big enough for this much inconsistency, but Gentry keeps trying new lineups to cure the New Orleans Pelicans woes.

Somewhat maddening, it stands to reason that Alvin Gentry should try to shrink the bench to nine or ten, but really roll with his rotations instead of trying to get so fancy.

At this rate, it’s hard to see Gentry sticking as the New Orleans Pelicans head coach, which was even somewhat surprising to see when the team rolled over their entire front office leadership core in the offseason.

The three guys from the Lakers have potentially been the three best players on the New Orleans Pelicans to start the year.

All coming over from the Los Angeles Lakers as pieces of the Anthony Davis swap, Josh Hart, Brandon Ingram, and Lonzo Ball have all been pretty good members of the New Orleans Pelicans.

When the team first began talking to the Lakers about these pieces, fans were quick to sour on the three, in addition to Kyle Kuzma, who ended up staying in Los Angeles.

Brandon Ingram has clearly been the best of the crop. The second overall pick from the 2016 NBA Draft looks increasingly comfortable. We’ve already talked a lot about Ingram, but it’s incredible to see how far this guy has come since his early time with the Lakers.

Hart is playing really good basketball mostly off of the New Orleans Pelicans bench, averaging the third-highest scoring average on the team at 12.6 points per night.

Looking like an improved version of what he was with the Lakers, Hart is shooting 38.6% from three on 5.7 attempts per game, often hitting shots in key spots for the Pelicans.

Speaking of improvement as a three-point shooter, Lonzo Ball is looking a lot more comfortable in his skin as a member of the New Orleans Pelicans. After remaking his shot in the offseason and cutting business ties with Big Baller Brand, Lonzo is back to playing like Lonzo.

With the trio playing as well as they’ve played so far in their careers, it’s really a shame that the team is off to such a slow start.

Jaxson Hayes looks like a really nice pick for David Griffin and Company

When this team decided to go with Jaxson Hayes with the eighth pick in the 2019 NBA Draft, they were taking a risk on a potentially long play prospect. Instead, they’ve gotten immediate impact from the rookie out of the University of Texas.

He’s been incredible to watch his role as a modern NBA rim running center, playing in limited opportunities as their 19-year-old, third-ranking center.

Hayes has been exciting to watch blossom so early in his rookie year considering many expected him to spend much of his first season developing in the G-League.

Avoiding a trip to play for the Erie Bay Hawks, Hayes has found an early comfort playing next to the similarly-impressive Jahlil Okafor.

In 7 games, he’s averaged 6.6 points, 3.1 rebounds, and shot 67.9% from the field on 4 attempts per contest. His per 36 minutes stats are especially impressive, showing 16.9 points, 8.1 rebounds, 1.5 blocks, and 1.5 steals, but the 7.7 personal fouls on that line are unsustainable.

Most exciting to fans have been the at-rim looks, where he’s converting alley-oops and dunks the way more and more teams are hoping for out of modern centers.

He’s currently shooting 78.6% of his looks from inside of three feet, where he’s hitting 77.3% of his looks, which is exactly what you’d hope out of the 19-year-old rookie.

Playing 14 minutes per contest, Hayes is averaging 3 personal fouls per game and has had issues with fouling at least dating back to college.

While he obviously has room to improve, Hayes has shown well for the New Orleans Pelicans in limited opportunities. So far, he looks like someone worth keeping around for the long haul.

David Griffin might want to add another piece to this New Orleans Pelicans roster because there’s a lot of young players without a real role.

One of the things Griffin was quick to bring up during his media day comments was the sheer amount of change he made to this roster in the offseason.

Starting somewhat of a new-wave youth movement in the offseason by combining young talent with competitive veterans, the New Orleans Pelicans’ front office gave themselves a lot of long-term chips to build for the future.

Even with their player talent, this team has a ton of draft assets curiosity of trades with the Atlanta Hawks and the Los Angeles Lakers in the offseason.

This organization has the assets to really build a juggernaut around Brandon Ingram and Zion Williamson, but not if they make the same errors they did while attempting to build something during their six years with Davis.

Right now, there are only two players on this roster who’ve made themselves untouchable if this team wants to ascend to title contenders over the next four-to-eight years.

Seemingly, they’ll have the assets to go after whatever super-mega star decides they want out, but not if they’re going to be stingy on the buyer’s side.

They have enough to spend, but this league is full of buyer’s remorse, even the New Orleans Pelicans can speak to that trauma.

Griffin was aggressive during his time building the LeBron James-led Cleveland Cavaliers, who won a title and made four-straight runs to the finals. Considering he’s already pulled off a handful of aggressive moves with the New Orleans Pelicans, he’ll likely have more tricks up his sleeve.

The New Orleans Pelicans have a lot of growing up to do in general

Talking more to the team’s nature of resetting this offseason, the overall youth movement really affected the composition of their roster.

I’m worried there’s a very “okay, boomer” vibe to this portion of the article, but the fact that so many key players on this team are so young is naturally going to have an effect on winning and losing. Maybe we’re the fools for expecting more than a 2-8 start from this young bunch of Pels.

Currently, the New Orleans Pelicans are the tenth-youngest team in the league, which surprised me, because they’ve been playing like the very youngest through ten games.

This team doesn’t really have a rhythm together, which is just accelerated by the fact that most of them haven’t really been in the league long enough to fall comfortably into a new situation.

Granted, there are outliers in the mix. Redick is 35-years-old and is by five full years the oldest member of the team.

The New Orleans Pelicans brought five first-year NBA players onto their opening day roster, so they should’ve known it might not click this as quickly as they’d hoped.

When considering how many of these players aren’t even old enough to rent a car, it’s easy to start feeling better about their future, especially in the case of the most important young players on the roster.

Eventually, this team will get healthy and be exciting, but until then, they’ve got a lot of work left to do if they want to keep talking about the playoffs, especially in a loaded Western Conference.