10 takeaways halfway through the New Orleans Pelicans season
By Willie Lutz
1. Brandon Ingram is an All-Star, but that seems like the floor for what’s to come from the lanky scorer
Nothing has led to more positivity this season from the New Orleans Pelicans than Brandon Ingram‘s ascension into a top-20 player in the league.
Often times looking promising, yet timid during his opening three-year stint with the Los Angeles Lakers, Ingram has taken the reigns as the Pelicans’ leading scorer, showing the ability to score in all three levels of the offense.
En route to what’s almost certainly going to be his first career All-Star Game, Ingram is averaging 25.6 points, 6.8 rebounds, 4.3 assists, and playing 34.7 minutes per contest in New Orleans.
Brandon Ingram is a massively underrated playmaker. He makes so many crisp, accurate passes within the flow of the offense. Doesn’t need to dominate the ball to produce. He’s finding Favors in P&R a ton down the stretch tonight. I bet Ingram’s assists go up once Zion is back.
— Kevin O'Connor (@KevinOConnorNBA) January 17, 2020
Shooting the lights out all over the floor, Ingram is hitting 40.1% of his 6.2 three-pointers, 47.8% of his 18.7 field goals, and 85.5% of his 6.2 free throw attempts per contest.
Still, Ingram could make strides on the defensive end of the floor that pushes his ceiling even higher; right now, Ingram looks like someone who we could be tagging with quite a bit of hardware by the end of his career.
Not just in line for an All-Star nod, Ingram seems like a front runner for the league’s Most Improved Player award, just a little under a year after his career was in jeopardy as blood clots in his arm scared a lot of people who’ve been following the scorer’s career.
So far this season, Ingram’s left fans wondering just how high his ceiling could go; is this a guy who could make multiple All NBA First Teams? Win MVP awards? FINALS MVP awards?
2. Alvin Gentry, Coach of the Year?
This is certain to draw plenty of eye-rolls from the New Orleans Pelicans’ Twitter culture, but Alvin Gentry continues to be impressive this season as the head coach of this basketball team.
What’s been most impressive from Gentry this season has been his ability to nail the halftime adjustments, as the Pelicans continue to ride strong second halves to the finish line.
Since the team broke their ugly losing streak on Dec. 17, they rank ninth in the league in second-half net rating, sixth in second half offensive rating, and eighth in second-half three-point percentage (36.2% on 18.8 attempts).
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Over that same stretch, the Pelicans have also had the fifth-most wins in the league, going 10-6 over the 16 game stretch that’s proven New Orleans to be a pretty good team.
All the while, Gentry is making the most of his rotations, managing injuries and a ton of new faces coming into the 2019-2020 season.
If Alvin Gentry can draw this team into the playoffs after their hellacious start to the season, he has to move into one of the front running positions for the Coach of the Year trophy.
Not only has he dealt with a ton of injuries, essentially a brand-new roster, and front office turnover that usually results in the ousting of lame-duck coaches like himself, but he’s got this team playing their best basketball since they changed their name from “Hornets” to “Pelicans”.