New Orleans Pelicans: Jeff Green experiment could benefit rotations

In the last few games, the New Orleans Pelicans proved they have the ability to beat good teams, but adding another veteran player could benefit winning.

Riding a four-game winning streak into the next decade, the New Orleans Pelicans are providing plentiful reasons for fans to feel optimistic. Regardless, David Griffin and the rest of the front office need to continue to focus on turning this roster into a playoff contender by season’s end.

Potentially, the New Orleans Pelicans could consider experimenting with a buy-low veteran in Jeff Green, who should be available on a veteran’s minimum contract.

It hasn’t been a great start to the 2019-2020 season for Green, who was waived by the Utah Jazz on Dec. 24, as their team decided to change face in order to make itself more competitive for the remainder of their own campaign.

In 30 games with Utah, including two starts, Green averaged 7.8 points, 2.7 rebounds, and shot 32.7% from three on 3.5 attempts per contest.

Despite Green’s lack of significant production with Utah, his 107 defensive rating was relatively impressive as an 18.4 minute-per-game contributor for the Jazz’s second team.

At most of the stops during his twelve-year career, Green has worn out his welcome with fan bases, frequently due to the heft of the contracts many of those teams handed the forward. Jeff Green has earned $78.1 million in his career despite never making an All-Star Game.

What Jeff Green could bring to this New Orleans Pelicans team is some veteran edge that could help the team make a fight for the playoffs. Green has tripped to the playoffs six times and averaged 9.8 points and 3.5 rebounds in 60 career postseason games.

Green did play with the Cleveland Cavaliers as a member of the 2017-2018 Eastern Conference Championship-winning team, averaging 23.8 minutes off the eventually Finals-losing bench. As an apparent choice of LeBron James, Green could very well end up with the Los Angeles Lakers.

As it currently stands, no teams were willing to claim Green on the waiver wire, so Green is now waiting in free agency limbo. Until a forward-needy roster decides to reach out about a minimum contract, Green and his agent will be waiting for the right phone call to strike a deal.

Behind Zion Williamson at power forward, the New Orleans Pelicans will still be limited in options, as Nicolò Melli isn’t quite ready to make an NBA impact and with Jaxson Hayes and Jahlil Okafor lacking the fleet of foot necessary to cover stretchier bigs.

Brandon Ingram is currently occupying the starting power forward role for the New Orleans Pelicans in a sort of pseudo-small-ball fashion, the team doesn’t seem to have a four to play the minutes when Zion’s sitting in the team’s back-to-back games.

As the team monitors the workload of Williamson throughout his rookie campaign, it might help the team gel if a veteran forward can join the team in any sort of role, even if his minutes aren’t that plentiful.

While adding Green isn’t a season-altering move and could take away minutes from a younger Pelicans cast, there’s something to be said about the positive performance from seasoned veterans like Derrick Favors, Jrue Holiday, and J.J. Redick this season. Even the plus play of E’Twaun Moore of late seems like a great guiding torch for many of this team’s young scoring options.

The 33-year-old forward is likely to wind up on a roster by the end of January and the New Orleans Pelicans will probably have a little bit of time to measure how well the team responds to Zion’s rotational induction before making any drastic move.

In any sense, there seems to be some sense of wisdom in adding one more solid bench player to this team while players like Melli and Frank Jackson continue to provide meager minutes.

Jeff Green might not be the most thrilling player in the history of this organization, yet on a minimum salary and easy to waive if things go south, it might be worth seeing if the forward can contribute to a Pelicans playoff push.

The New Orleans Pelicans sit 3.5 games out of the Western Conference Playoffs despite their early-season plummet. If they decide to add one more player, someone of the veteran caliber Jeff Green can provide, this team might just find themselves making a quick jump to the eight-seed.