New Orleans Pelicans: How Team Additions Impact Stretch Run
By Tim Burke
How roster additions affect the New Orleans Pelicans
David Nwaba, Houston Rockets
Nwaba won’t have any impact on the floor during this restart as he is out with a torn Achilles he suffered in December. The most interesting aspects of the Rockets signing Nwaba are what they had to do to get him and what it means for next season when he’s healthy.
To bring in Nwaba the Rockets needed to waive a player to create a roster spot. That player was Isaiah Hartenstein; that leaves the Rockets with only one player over 6’9″ on the roster, Tyson Chandler. Depending on who the Rockets play in the postseason, rim protection could be an issue for Houston.
Nwaba fits the mold that Houston seems to be looking for in their wings, long and athletic. While he’s never been an elite scorer, he’s exactly what the Rockets are looking for as a defense-first, spot-up shooter. Nwaba shot 42.9% from deep this season, albeit on just 1.4 attempts per game (that’s making only 0.6 shots per game). This signing could pay off big next season on Houston’s all small-ball roster.
Tyler Johnson, Brooklyn Nets
Johnson was the highest-profile profile player to be signed during the lead up to players reporting to their teams. This is because during the summer of 2016, when the cap jumped up, Johnson signed a four-year deal worth $50 million with the Miami Heat. That deal was actually the Heat matching an offer sheet from the Nets (they’ve wanted Johnson for a long time now).
Johnson was waived by the Phoenix Suns in February, just over a year after he was traded there. He could have the largest role with his new team of any player signed for Orlando, with multiple Nets players testing positive for COVID-19 recently (DeAndre Jordan and Spencer Dinwiddie). Jordan and Wilson Chandler have opted out of returning this season, while Dinwiddie is still weighing his options.
Johnson could become a starting guard for a team already without it’s starting point guard, Kyrie Irving, if that’s the case Brooklyn will need the Miami version of Tyler Johnson and not the Phoenix one to have any chance of even winning a game in the first round. As the seventh seed currently the Nets will likely play the Raptors when the playoffs actually start, but if they lose too many of their eight games before the playoffs they could fall to the eighth seed and have to play the Bucks.
Tyler Zeller, San Antonio Spurs
The Spurs’ chances of making the play-in game for the eighth seed in the Western Conference were torpedoed when word came out that LaMarcus Aldridge was going to miss the remainder of the season following shoulder surgery in April.
By bringing in Zeller the Spurs are adding depth to their frontcourt that was already thin to begin with. It’s likely that Zeller will be the fifth frontcourt player in Orlando but without Aldridge, the team only has one center, Jakob Poeltl, on the roster as is.
If anything were to happen to Poeltl, Zeller will be forced into action for the first time in almost two years (during the 2018-19 season he played just six games).