The New Orleans Pelicans Should Consider Shane Larkin

Shane Larkin is looking for a meaningful job in the NBA and the New Orleans Pelicans could use a backup point guard, but is it a good match?

After J.J. Redick went down with injury, the New Orleans Pelicans‘ bench was exposed. Josh Hart and Nicolo Melli went cold from long range and the second unit was coughing up a lot of early leads.

The Pelicans tried a few different combinations of players but nothing was really working, which left their starters playing big minutes and Alvin Gentry scrambling to find scoring off the bench.

After a hot start, the Pelicans dropped to 15th in bench scoring and watched their 3-point shooting disappear.

It all started after February 25th, when the bench collectively went cold, scoring 22 points or fewer as a group in five of seven games.

During that time Melli and Hart couldn’t hit anything, Redick got hurt and suddenly the Pelicans’ bench went from a strength to a weakness.

Redick should be back from injury, which will help the bench some, but the Pelicans also need to consider adding a player or two now that the NBA has expanded rosters.

According to Shams Charania, the NBA will allow teams to expand their rosters to 17 players in Orlando.

The New Orleans Pelicans will be without Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Darius Miller and Kenrich Williams is questionable after being out for most of the season.

They could not only use some additional players for practice purposes, but there might be a few guys out there who could actually help when play resumes at the end of July.

One such player is Shane Larkin, who is currently in the EuroLeague, but recently indicated that he’d be willing to return to the NBA if he were guaranteed a role.

That might be tough for the New Orleans Pelicans considering they already have Frank Jackson slotted in as the backup point guard, but if they see this as a weakness, Larkin could be a good replacement.