New Orleans Pelicans: 3 New Year’s Resolutions to set team for great 2020

NEW ORLEANS, LA - DECEMBER 15: Lonzo Ball #2 of the New Orleans Pelicans and Brandon Ingram #14 of the New Orleans Pelicans smile during a game against the Orlando Magic on December 16, 2019 at the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans, Louisiana. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2019 NBAE (Photo by Layne Murdoch Jr./NBAE via Getty Images)
NEW ORLEANS, LA - DECEMBER 15: Lonzo Ball #2 of the New Orleans Pelicans and Brandon Ingram #14 of the New Orleans Pelicans smile during a game against the Orlando Magic on December 16, 2019 at the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans, Louisiana. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2019 NBAE (Photo by Layne Murdoch Jr./NBAE via Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
1 of 4
Next
New Orleans Pelicans
NEW ORLEANS, LA – DECEMBER 15: Lonzo Ball #2 of the New Orleans Pelicans and Brandon Ingram #14 of the New Orleans Pelicans smile during a game against the Orlando Magic on December 16, 2019 at the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans, Louisiana. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2019 NBAE (Photo by Layne Murdoch Jr./NBAE via Getty Images) /

The New Orleans Pelicans are one of the hottest teams heading into 2020, but as the calendar flips, the team has to do more to ensure success down the road.

Enduring a 13-game losing streak beginning around Thanksgiving, the New Orleans Pelicans have a lot of reasons to smile heading into the new decade.

Partially thanks to their brand-new four-game winning streak, to the recent developmental strides seen in young players, and due to the Zion Williamson debut quickly creeping into reality, there’s a lot of room for positivity surrounding this team.

Heading into 2020, the Pelicans sit just 3.5 games behind the San Antonio Spurs for the eighth-seed in the Western Conference Playoffs with one of the most important reinforcements in the league on the way next month.

Despite their recent surge, there’s certainly still plenty of room for this young core to grow, especially as complacent teams are rarely successful teams.

This Pelicans team has the potential to do something special, but just like with all young teams, they’ll need to stay focused on the mission at hand.

One benefit of the team’s current positive performance is their ability to keep this roster together, even if their combinations have shown flows at times, but especially early in the season.

Seemingly right as trade rumors for Jrue Holiday, Derrick Favors and J.J. Redick emerged, this team started playing much better basketball.

Regardless, this group has to keep growing with each other and learning how to make each other great. Continuing to develop as a core, this New Orleans Pelicans team could have one of the highest ceilings in the league.

With that being said, they’ll need to focus on specifics to make sure their internal message is getting across, even with David Griffin’s “Won’t Bow Down” slogan really starting to make sense as the team surges back to relevance.