New Orleans Pelicans: Positives and Negatives from the Final Scrimmage

New Orleans Pelicans’ shooting was inconsistent vs. Bucks.

The Shooting

The Pelicans mostly shot the ball well over the three scrimmages, though that was not the case last night, especially from distance.

The Good: Free Throws!!  The Pelicans made 23-29 free throws as a team for 79%, which is about as good as they get.  The bad part is that after shooting zero free throws in the second scrimmage, the Pelicans’ starters shot just two in the finale. Free throws are one often overlooked weakness for the Pelicans, but they are second to last in the NBA in team free throw percentage. This makes no sense for a team with so many good shooters and it’s something they have to fix. If they can hit close to 80% as a team, the Pelicans will be in good shape, but if they start leaving points on the table, it is going to cost them in close games. Let’s hope they can replicate last night, get to the line often, and knock them down.

The Bad: The Pelicans couldn’t buy a shot in the first half and missed a ton of wide open three’s. The ended the night a respectable 17-47 for 36%, but that is below their team average and it took a sudden hot streak from J.J. Redick to even get them there. The Pels were 3-16 from long-distance near the end of the first half and their shooting was keeping them out of the game. One positive is that the Pels were getting good looks and not forcing the three’s. Nicolo Melli went two for seven and all of them were wide open. Lonzo went two for seven, Brandon Ingram went two for six, but they were all shots that the Pelicans are happy taking. They rely heavily on the three-ball and it will let them down at times, but is also a huge weapon when they get rolling, which happened in the third quarter with Redick going into video game mode. Eventually the shots started falling, but it would be nice for the Pelicans to try and be more aggressive getting to the rim when they are not.