3 ways Meyers Leonard could help the New Orleans Pelicans

New Orleans Pelicans free agency: Meyers Leonard could be a fit

Free Throws

The New Orleans Pelicans were one of the worst free-throw shooting teams in the NBA this season, something that cost them games.

Not only were they leaving tons of points at the line overall, but were unable to close out games that they had in hand.

The Pelicans were one of the worst clutch time teams in the NBA, largely because of their inability to put teams away at the line.

Zion, Lonzo Ball, Jaxson Hayes and even Jrue Holiday are all sub-par free throw shooters, which makes it difficult to build leads late in games when teams just start hacking.

Meyers Leonard is an 81.1 percent free-throw shooter for his career, which is better than everyone on the Pelicans not named Brandon Ingram or J.J. Redick.

Having a big man who can knock down free throws is a weapon in the NBA and could keep other teams from hacking the Pels down the stretch.

Obviously, Leonard isn’t going to have the ball in his hands a lot, but he could be on the floor late in close games and give the Pelicans another good free throw shooter.

It may not seem like much, but when you are consistently leaving 6-10 points on the free-throw line, it ends up being huge in close games and a reason the Pelicans didn’t win many of them.

Meyers Leonard is not going to bring a title to New Orleans, but he could be a valuable piece that helps some of the Pelicans’ biggest weaknesses.