New Orleans Pelicans: How the Pels’ defense will improve this season

The New Orleans Pelicans still need to upgrade their wing defense

Wings

The Pelicans’ single biggest offseason need was to find a big, defensive wing to complement Brandon Ingram and they failed to do it.

There were some baffling passes in free agency for the Pelicans, particularly on guys like Torrey Craig, who is a defensive wing who signed for the minimum after playing impact minutes in the Western Conference Finals last season.

However, the Pels’ wing defense should improve through addition by subtraction. Injury-prone Kenrich Williams and Darius Miller are gone and have been replaced by Sindarius Thornwell and undrafted rookie Naji Marshall, who could end up being the defensive steal of the draft.

Josh Hart will probably get a lot more run at small forward as well, but the Pels are still light in this area.

It appears as though the Pelicans’ biggest defensive weakness is still there, though improved defense at center and guard should help the wings as well.

The Pelicans still need a defensive stopper on the wing and David Griffin should be spending the rest of the offseason trying to acquire one, even if it means making another trade.

Hopefully, Marshall, Thornwell and Gabriel will all step up, but the Pels are putting a lot of faith in three guys who are completely unproven in the NBA.