With the season on hiatus and facing a possible cancellation, several New Orleans Pelicans may have played their last game with the team.
The NBA is prepping for play to resume in June as the best-case scenario and it may not return at all, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN. Cancelling the season is the last thing anyone wants, but the New Orleans Pelicans have to consider this possibility and how it will affect the team.
While rookie Zion Williamson is reading books and helping people out, others on his team have to be wondering if they have played their final game for the New Orleans Pelicans.
With no way of knowing how the suspension of play will affect revenue and the salary cap, teams may find themselves with less money to spend than anticipated, which will impact potential free agents.
This includes several members of the New Orleans Pelicans, who are hoping the shutdown is just a short hiatus and that they can continue their run at the eighth seed in the Western Conference.
It is an unprecedented time for the New Orleans Pelicans and the NBA as a whole.
The league could just pick up where it left off, start the playoffs with the current standings, have some type of play-in tournament or simply cancel the season entirely.
If the worst-case scenario happens and the season has to be cancelled, there are three players who have likely played their final games as New Orleans Pelicans.
Jahlil Okafor, Center
It seems like Jahlil Okafor has been in the league forever, but he is still just 24 years old. After a promising rookie year for 76ers, Okafor’s career has nose-dived.
His points and rebounds have gone down just about every year he’s been in the league, culminating in a trip to the G-League for Philadelphia.
Okafor did have a small resurgence last season for the New Orleans Pelicans, playing 59 games, including 24 as a starter, but he hasn’t seen much action in 2019-20.
He has played in only 28 games this season, most of them at the beginning and has logged a steady stream of DNP’s ever since.
Okafor is making just $1.7 million, so he’s in the range of most backup centers, but the New Orleans Pelicans simply won’t need him moving forward.
Not only do they have a promising young center in Jaxson Hayes, but Okafor plays the type of back-to-the-basket post game that is no longer part of the modern NBA, particularly for the New Orleans Pelicans, who want to get up and down the floor and shoot 3-pointers.
Okafor is one of those players who would have thrived in the 1990’s but missed his window.
The New Orleans Pelicans will likely be right at the edge of the salary cap if and when they re-sign Brandon Ingram, so one-dimensional players like Okafor will have to be sacrificed.
E’Twaun Moore, Shooting Guard
E’Twaun Moore, aka “Uncle E” is one of those guys that every team needs.
He does whatever he is asked, shoots the 3-pointer at 37.5 percent and plays solid team defense.
The problem is that Moore is making $8.66 million this season, a number the New Orleans Pelicans definitely can’t carry moving forward, especially for a guy averaging 8.6 points per game.
With Lonzo Ball, Jrue Holiday, J.J. Redick, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, and Josh Hart already locked up at guard for next season, it appears Moore will be the odd man out.
The New Orleans Pelicans will still need another guard, but are likely to fill that role with a young guy like Frank Jackson or a minimum-level free agent.
Moore is 31 years old, but still does some things that NBA teams value, namely guarding multiple spots on the perimeter and knocking down 3-point shots.
It’s possible that someone will offer Moore a far larger contract than the Pelicans can or would, so Uncle E may have played his last game with the team if games do not resume.
This would be a shame, as Moore is a fan favorite in New Orleans and the Pelicans’ faithful would like nothing more than to send him out on a high note, whether it is by making a run in the playoffs or at least getting a standing ovation in the final game.
The New Orleans Pelicans would almost certainly like to have his veteran leadership but Moore is likely to be a cap casualty in the offseason.
Derrick Favors, Center
Derrick Favors is another player that the New Orleans Pelicans may simply have to let walk in free agency.
Favors has been valuable for the Pelicans, is the anchor of their interior defense and is the type of no-nonsense veteran leader that all young teams need.
The problem is that they won’t be able to afford him and the team is moving towards a type of basketball that doesn’t have much use for a guy like Favors.
Favors is certainly the team’s best interior defender, shot blocker and rebounder, but he is limited offensively, can’t stretch the floor and often clogs the lane, making it harder for Zion to go to work.
The New Orleans Pelicans already take a lot of 3-pointers, play at a lightning pace and have major deficiencies on defense, even with Favors, but if anything, the Pelicans want to play even faster in the future.
Favors is not in the top-five lineups for the Pelicans in terms of pace and the future will likely see a lot of Zion as a small-ball five.
Favors is matchup-dependent, doesn’t play big minutes and the New Orleans Pelicans are a lot faster when he is not on the floor.
Add that to the fact that Favors is making $17.65 million this season, and it’s easy to see why the Pelicans will probably let him walk.
Favors is still only 28, and the 2020 free agent crop is weak, so he might find a team willing to offer him one last big contract, but that team will not be the New Orleans Pelicans.
His style of play and salary make him a poor fit for the Pels moving forward, so if the season does not resume, then we’ve seen the last of Favors in a Pelicans’ uniform.
This is undoubtedly the craziest NBA season on record. With so many things in flux, it is still too early to know how the NBA is going to look in the post-coronavirus world.
This season will always be remembered as the pre-and-post outbreak and there will undoubtedly be storylines and ripple effects that we can’t predict.
We’ll continue to provide coverage of the New Orleans Pelicans during the hiatus, so check back for more great content.
For more information about COVID-19, visit the Center for Disease Control’s website or the website for your state’s Department of Health.