New Orleans Pelicans: 4 Potential Rivalries That Can Start in 2021

Seeing the Phoenix Suns scorch the NBA bubble sends a message to the New Orleans Pelicans that they won’t go down easy

The second team that I think can rival the New Orleans Pelicans is another young team that falls in the Pelicans’ tier of contention, the Phoenix Suns. The Suns announced their arrival to the league this year under former Pelicans head coach Monty Williams, and that’s where this begins.

Monty Williams coached the New Orleans Pelicans from 2010 to 2015 and the organization fired him after a 45 win season. This means beating the Pelicans ever chance he gets will be a sweet feeling for Williams.

Unfortunately for the Pelicans, Williams has the horse to do just that with a core of Devin Booker, DeAndre Ayton, Mikal Bridges, and Cam Johnson. With all those weapons on the roster, Willams uses his 0.5 offensive system to perfection.

This means the New Orleans Pelicans will play a lot of shootouts against the Phoenix Suns next season. The Suns love moving the ball and shooting 3 pointers as much as the Pelicans do and I expect that’ll lead to a lot of 116-114 types of games.

The closer a game, the more heated things get and I think that’s the match that’ll ignite a fierce rivalry between the Pelicans and Suns.