New Orleans Pelicans: What to make of NAW after rookie struggles

PIcked in the first round by the New Orleans Pelicans but never getting going in his rookie year, Nickeil Alexander-Walker has a lot to prove next year.

Entering the season with a treasure chest full of high-ceiling prospects, the New Orleans Pelicans hoped to get their rookies started on the right foot.

Unfortunately, the plug-and-play impact never happened for Nickeil Alexander-Walker in the first year of his NBA career, who was drafted with the team’s seventeenth-overall pick in the 2019 NBA Draft.

Though they desperately needed another ballhandler in their offense due to a bevy of injuries to their starting lineup at the start of the season, Nickeil never found his stride in the Pelicans’ rotations.

Suffering a hairline fracture in his right wrist during a two-game stint with the Erie Bay Hawks of the G-League, the team announced Alexander-Walker would be out indefinitely, likely ending his rookie campaign for New Orleans.

Alexander-Walker has looked really lost in his first year in the NBA, even though Alvin Gentry and the New Orleans Pelicans coaching staff have tried to use him in a variety of ways.

When they’ve moved Nickeil on the ball, he’s made far too many costly turnovers. When they move him off the ball, he’s far too trigger happy for a 33.9% field goal shooter.

If I were the Pelicans, however, I’d be a lot more concerned about what’s happened when they’ve trusted Nickeil to run the offense. He hasn’t given the team any reason to trust him, as he forces far too many contested triples, but even worse than that have been his passes into thin air.

Clear throughout the season, the New Orleans Pelicans have lacked a spark when they’ve been forced to play without Jrue Holiday or Lonzo Ball due to rotational rest or injury.

Many of the Pelicans’ worst net-rated, five-man rotations this season have included Alexander-Walker.

Though he’s played just 5 minutes next to Zion Williamson so far, that lineup has been the fourth-worst on the team, posting a -67 net rating in two games. In fact, 4 of the team’s 15 worst-rated lineups included Nickeil Alexander-Walker; that’s bad news for the shooting guard.

Further hampered by his 91 offensive and 113 defensive ratings, coupled with an unsightly 7.6 PER, it’s been a pretty disastrous first 501 minutes of professional basketball for the guard.

Simply put, he can not be as big of a negative and still expect to be a part of the Pelicans’ plans heading into their bright future.

Hard work will keep Nickeil Alexander-Walker in the conversation and his sophomore year will likely be much better for the New Orleans Pelicans.

No one will doubt that hopes were higher for the rookie season from Nickeil Alexander-Walker, who will do his best to put this season in the past.

In the preseason, he was the belle of the ball, even getting called the biggest steal of the draft by league executives after his torrid run through the Summer League.

Playing 41 games at an average of 12.2 minutes per appearance, Alexander Walker posted 5.1 points, 2 rebounds, and 1.8 assists, while shooting 34.2% from three on 2.9 attempts per contest.

Even worse, he struggled to convert his free throws (60.7% on 0.7 attempts per game) and turned the ball over far too frequently (2.9 turnovers per 36 minutes).

Among combo guards, his 13.7% turnover rate ranks in the 27th percentile, per Cleaning the Glass.

While he’s struggled to find his footing on the court, his teammates and other members of the New Orleans Pelicans see the hustle and hard work embedded into Nickeil’s personality.

"“We have a rookie, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, who I love. He basically just does whatever I do, and it’s amazing. Sometimes I’m just trying to do [work] on my on and he’s like ‘hey man, can I come along with you?'” J.J. Redick said on his podcast of his rookie teammates."

J.J. Redick has been complimentary of the rookie throughout his first year in the NBA and it’s very encouraging to hear that Nickeil is locked in on his teammate’s training. Afterall, Redick is one of the best shooters in NBA history and even at the age of 35, he puts tremendous hours into his craft.

Learning from his veteran teammates will be key for Nickeil heading into the future, especially as players like Holiday and Redick continue to slide into the back halves of their careers.

Over the summer, Nickeil was inseparable from his fellow rookie teammates in Jaxson Hayes and Zion Williamson, all of whom spent most of their preseason training in New Orleans.

Perhaps even more time in and around the New Orleans Pelicans organization could be the best way for Nickeil to grow into an NBA role.

After looking so out-of-sync on both ends of the floor this season, it seems like Alexander-Walker could use time with Alvin Gentry, Jeff Bzdelik, Chris Finch, Fred Vinson and the rest of the team’s coaching staff just to get more comfortable running within the system

Nickeil Alexander-Walker has a very high ceiling, but the version Pelicans fans saw this season simply won’t help this core going forward. Hopefully, he can put that all in the past before the start of the 2020-2021 NBA season.

With just a handful of games left this season for observation, the New Orleans Pelicans will probably have to add more scoring and ballhandling to the bench before the next, but if Nickeil can step into that role, it would be a fantastic result for both parties.