New Orleans Pelicans: Adding Talent More Important than Making Playoffs

The New Orleans Pelicans missing the playoffs isn’t the worst thing.

The New Orleans Pelicans were not supposed to be good this year, especially after Zion Williamson went down early with an injury.

This was supposed to be a building year, a learning year, a year when the Pelicans started to figure out how their young pieces fit together and how to best complement them.

They started out 6-22 and it looked as though the New Orleans Pelicans would be choosing near the top of the draft again.

Then they started winning, Zion came back and suddenly everyone forgot about the “developmental” season and started talking playoffs.

I am a fan who hates tanking and wants teams to try hard every game, so I was desperately hoping the Pelicans would make the playoffs a year ahead of schedule.

But after watching them in the bubble, it is clear that this team needs more talent, a more balanced roster, and that making the playoffs isn’t necessarily the best thing.

The New Orleans Pelicans can use the draft to add talent.

Depending on how the 8th seed shakes out in the West, the Pelicans will end somewhere between 10th and 12th in the Western Conference.

They will still have up to a 13% chance to get into the top-four and a minuscule chance of stealing the number one pick.

If they made the playoffs, none of that is true, as the best they could do would be the 15th pick with no chance of jumping higher.

Let’s face it, these Pelicans were not going to beat the Lakers, so they basically just traded a four-game beat down for at least a chance at a top pick.

The Pelicans can use their pick to add to their already young and talented roster, or they can package it with a player to fill a need in a trade.

The Pelicans desperately need size and more wing talent, so this pick could end up being very useful, especially if the Pelicans decide to swing for the fences with someone like Bradley Beal.

This situation is not ideal, but as a fan, I’d rather see the Pels add more talent than get smoked by the Lakers.