If the NBA season needs to be cancelled, the New Orleans Pelicans will have plenty of questions that could go unanswered.
The NBA season is on indefinite hiatus and may have to be cancelled entirely. Presently there is no way of predicting how this will affect things like the salary cap, trades or free agency for the New Orleans Pelicans.
The NBA should be commended for its quick response to the outbreak of COVID-19, one which clearly put the health of the players and fans first.
No one wants the season to be cancelled, but if that decision has to be made for the health and safety of players and the public, then it should be supported wholeheartedly.
If the season is lost, there will be many storylines left untold, glory left unclaimed and questions that go unanswered.
In the midst of a playoff run with a young team that has several players up for awards, the New Orleans Pelicans will have plenty to argue about if the season were to end today.
Here are five questions that may go unanswered for the New Orleans Pelicans.
Question 1: Could they have claimed the 8th seed?
The battle for the eighth seed in the Western Conference was shaping up to be epic.
We had three up-and-coming teams in the New Orleans Pelicans, Sacramento Kings and Memphis Grizzlies trying to start new winning traditions.
We had two old standards, the Portland Trail Blazers and San Antonio Spurs trying to maintain the status quo, which in the case of the Spurs was a 22-year streak of making the playoffs.
The New Orleans Pelicans were all over the place down the stretch.
They had won two in a row heading into the hiatus, but were just 5-5 in their last 10 games, including a couple of losses to bad teams like the Minnesota Timberwolves.
FiveThirtyEight still gave the Pelicans a 60 percent chance of making the playoffs largely due to an easy schedule.
Easy schedule or not, you have to show up every night to win in the NBA and it would have been interesting to see if the young New Orleans Pelicans could stay focused and take care of business.
All great teams go through a learning curve that usually begins with making the playoffs. Were the New Orleans Pelicans there yet?
We might never know.
If they did make the playoffs, could they beat the Lakers?
Unless you are LaVar Ball, who predicted the Pelicans would beat the Lakers in the first round, then the answer to this question is probably no, and you may even add an expletive.
Count me in the “expletive no” crowd on this one. After all, the Lakers swept the season series easily, have two of the best five players in the league and were the favorite to win the title.
Add that to the fact that the New Orleans Pelicans might not have even made the playoffs, and I think it’s easy enough to predict the Lakers making the second round regardless of who they played in the first.
The Pelicans may not have been able to beat the Lakers in a series, but could they have won a game? Two?
Zion Williamson thrived under the big lights in Los Angeles and had one of his biggest games against the Lakers jut before the hiatus.
Brandon Ingram and Lonzo Ball stepped up against their former team and seemed to relish the big moment.
The problem is that so does LeBron James.
James torched the Pelicans all year, including a triple double in a 122-114 win for the Lakers that didn’t even include former Pelican Anthony Davis.
The New Orleans Pelicans may have won the Davis trade in the long-term, but the short-term still belongs to the Lakers.
It would have been fascinating to see if the young Pelicans could step up and make a series out of it against Los Angeles, but unfortunately we may have to wait another season to see it happen.
Would Alvin Gentry have been fired?
No one had a more up and down season for the New Orleans Pelicans than coach Alvin Gentry.
After the Pelicans started the season 6-22, Gentry was the odds-on-favorite to be the first coach fired.
Even though Gentry had recently signed an extension, the 2020-21 season is a team option, so the New Orleans Pelicans could have chosen to go another way if they weren’t happy with how the season turned out.
Though Gentry has to be given some credit for the turnaround, he is in his fifth season with the New Orleans Pelicans and is only 173-219 overall with one playoff appearance in 2017-18, a loss in the conference semi-finals.
It looked like the Pelicans were on their way to being a consistent contender, but then they promptly missed the playoffs the next season and were on the verge of missing them again this year.
Gentry has a proven track record with young players and there is an argument to be made that injuries and bad luck have as much to do with Gentry’s record as his coaching.
But the NBA is a results-driven league and eventually you have to get into the playoffs and win if you want to keep your job.
If the season were to end today, the team would likely exercise their option and keep him, but what if the New Orleans Pelicans had finished the season and not made the playoffs?
Would Gentry be blamed for the lack of defensive scheme? Would he be blamed for his young team losing focus against some of the bottom feeders?
Would the New Orleans Pelicans have confidence that Gentry could lead what has become the best young core in the NBA and that he was the best person for their development?
These are all fair questions, though we may never know the answers if the season is cancelled.
Will Brandon Ingram win MIP? Will he make the All-NBA team?
If the NBA season has to be cancelled, then one of the most difficult decisions will be how to handle the awards.
The league could choose to not give them out at all, which might be the fairest decision, but in all likelihood we will still see some version of the MVP, MIP, ROY, All-Defense and All-NBA teams, even if the season has to be cut short.
We ranked the five most improved players in the NBA, and think New Orleans Pelicans’ All-Star Forward Brandon Ingram is a lock for the award.
The important question is whether Ingram would make an All-NBA team.
Ingram has had an amazing season, raising his scoring average to 24.3 and looking like a young Durant in the process.
While Pelicans’ fans might hope to see one of their guys make the team, the truth is that an All-NBA bid for Ingram will have big ramifications for the team moving forward.
Ingram is currently eligible for around $167 million for a five-year max contract with the New Orleans Pelicans. If he makes an All-NBA team, then Ingram would become the first restricted free agent to be eligible for the super-max, which is five years, $200 million.
Ingram has stiff competition for an All-NBA forward spot, but his 24.3 points per game will almost certainly get him some votes.
This wouldn’t stop the New Orleans Pelicans from signing Ingram, but it might give them pause.
Yes, he is only 22 years old.
Yes, he has gotten better every year and yes, he fits nicely with Zion and Lonzo.
But is he worth $40 million per year?
Signing Ingram to the super-max could hamper the New Orleans Pelicans’ chances of retaining Zion and Lonzo long-term, and might even necessitate a trade of a higher-salaried player like Jrue Holiday.
The New Orleans Pelicans have a lot of tough decisions to make in the offseason and it will be further complicated if Ingram makes the All-NBA team.
Is Zion the Rookie of the Year?
If the season ended today then the answer to this one is no.
Ja Morant has had an amazing season, had his team in the playoffs and Zion simply didn’t play enough games to be considered.
But what a start for the New Orleans Pelicans’ young phenom.
Not only was he averaging 23.6 points and 6.8 rebounds in his 19 games as a New Orleans Pelican but he was doing it in style, filling highlight reels nightly and thrilling fans around the league.
With no offense to Morant, no rookie had the impact of Zion and if the New Orleans Pelicans had made the playoffs, he would have undoubtedly garnered some votes as Rookie of the Year.
The award may have come down to which of the rookies made the playoffs, and with the New Orleans Pelicans just 3.5 games behind Memphis and creeping, it was far from over.
Whether voters would have given the award to Zion despite missing so much of the season is one of the most interesting questions that may go unanswered.
The NBA and world are in unprecedented territory, but we here at Pelican Debrief are committed to continued coverage of the New Orleans Pelicans.
Thanks for your support in these trying times. Stay healthy and safe out there!
For more information about COVID-19, visit the Centers for Disease Control’s website or the website for your state’s Department of Health.