New Orleans Pelicans vs Magic: A Possible Preview of Next Season

Key Matchups

The Pelicans will again be without three-fifths of their starters, as Jrue,  Brandon Ingram, and Zion Williamson will sit tonight. Possibly joining them is Hart who is listed as questionable as of this writing. These missed games while defensible from a health standpoint, are starting to become very annoying, especially when it comes to Zion.

For a player to develop their game they need to play in games not just work at practice. Zion could get some valuable playing time against a giant frontcourt in this game as Vucevic and Bamba should still see minutes tonight.

Orlando won’t have all their players tonight either as Evan Fournier, Michael Carter-Williams, Terrence Ross, and Aaron Gordon are already listed as out in addition to Issac who tore his ACL a few days ago. That means both teams will be going deep into their bench for this last game.

The good news is that we could see a lot of Mo Bamba and Markelle Fultz tonight. Both came into the league with sky-high expectations. Bamba was more of a viral sensation as he has a song named after him and we all wanted him to be great but he’s been glued to the bench with Vucevic and Khem Birch both getting more minutes at center.

Fultz was drafted first overall by the Sixers and was expected to be the missing piece that would make Philadelphia championship caliber. He’s had his struggles well documented by pretty much everyone online but he’s quietly had a pretty strong season with the Magic, playing nearly 28 minutes per game and averaging 12.1 points, 3.3 rebounds, and 5.1 assists while shooting 46.6% from the field.

Again for New Orleans, we should get a heavy dose of Hayes, Nickeil-Alexander Walker and Frank Jackson as the team tries to decide whether they should be part of the future.

Trying to stop Vucevic should be a good challenge for Hayes, who needs to prove he can hang in against bigger, stronger guys.

It will also be interesting to see if NAW continues to play point guard. He has struggled at times with turnovers but has also had some nice drives and passes.

It’s been a strange season to say the least and the New Orleans Pelicans are probably ready for it to be over.