The New Orleans Pelicans had an up and down season leading up to the hiatus. Let’s take a look at how their offense, defense and clutch team grade out so far.
The New Orleans Pelicans were a team of extremes in 2019-20, as they started out 6-22 before going on a tear and clawing their way back into playoff contention.
With the NBA season hanging on by a thread, we may never know if the Pelicans could have closed the gap on the Memphis Grizzlies to grab the final playoff spot in the Western Conference.
The New Orleans Pelicans were 3.5 games out of the eighth seed when play was suspended and still had two games remaining with the rival Grizzlies.
FiveThirtyEight gave the Pelicans a 60 percent chance to make the playoffs, largely due to a weak schedule and the remaining head-to-head games with the teams they were chasing.
Considering an injury to superstar rookie Zion Williamson limited him to just 19 games, making the playoffs would have been a big achievement for the young and ascending New Orleans Pelicans.
Even though the team was just 10-9 after Zion’s return, they played tough competition in that stretch and were just beginning to scratch the surface of their talent and chemistry as a unit.
In fact, the Pelicans’ starters rank as the number one starting lineup in the NBA statistically, so things were definitely starting to come together for New Orleans.
Any true fan of basketball was longing for that Pelicans/Lakers first round series, as it seemed like the first chapter in a book about how the New Orleans Pelicans became a dynasty.
While players use their down time to study the game and tweak their skills, we’ll take a look at the grades for the Pelicans’ offense, defense and clutch team before the hiatus.