New Orleans Pelicans: What Jamal Murray’s Run Says About Lonzo Ball’s Future

What If the New Orleans Pelicans Can’t Make Lonzo Ball Into A Scorer?

I hate to admit, in part because I love playmaking guard but if the New Orleans Pelicans can’t get Lonzo Ball scoring more, then they might need to move on for a stronger scoring guard.

Here’s the reasoning, we all love watching players like Jason Kidd, Steve Nash, and Chris Paul dazzle us with their passing but how many championships have those players won? The answer is one, and that was Jason Kidd who won a title with Dallas at the end of his career in a relinquished role.

Then on the other side of the point guard spectrum, Stephen Curry and Kyrie Irving are champions because they mix scoring mentalities to their games. Some of you will now bring up Brandon Ingram and Zion Williamson. Why do the New Orleans Pelicans need Lonzo to score with those two on the roster?

Here are my thoughts. Players like Brandon Ingram and Zion Williamson have the opposite problem, they never become strong enough playmakers to lead title teams. This is something we have seen historically with stars like Charles Barkley and  Carmelo Anthony. To a degree, we’re seeing this happen to Giannis Antetokounmpo in the playoffs now.

When those players do become strong playmakers though, like LeBron James and Jimmy Butler it always helps to have a scoring guard who can play off of them. Look again to this year’s playoffs, part of the reason Jimmy Butler and the Boston Celtics’ Jayson Tatum are being so spectacular is that they have scoring guards to dish the ball to.

Take away the presence of a scoring guard from a playmaking wing and their chances for title contention go down dramatically. My example of this would be the 2015 Finals, LeBron James loses Kyrie Iriving and suddenly the game got harder for him because he didn’t have a scoring guard to pass the ball to.

What this ends up meaning to me sadly is that the New Orleans Pelicans either need Lonzo Ball to score more or move him for a guard who can like Bradley Beal. The team can take the chance of trying to win with a pass-first point guard, but historically it’s easier to win with a guard that packs a scoring punch.