New Orleans Pelicans: Better or worse? A breakdown of each position
New Orleans Pelicans: Will the Pels be better or worse at power forward?
Power Forward
2019-20: Zion Williamson, Nicolo Melli
2020-21: Zion Williamson, Nicolo Melli, Wenyen Gabriel
Another of the Pels’ biggest needs was to bring in a power forward to compete with Melli for minutes.
The Pelicans’ last season relied FAR too heavily on contributions from Melli, who couldn’t make a shot after February and doesn’t defend very well.
Gabriel is unproven but hungry and will come in and compete with Melli as a defensive stopper in the second unit. If Melli doesn’t pick up his defense, Stan Van Gundy will go with the defender and Melli will find himself on the bench.
Obviously, the big gain here would be a full season from Zion Williamson, who will be the X-Factor in any improvement from the Pelicans this season.
The Pels narrowly missed the playoffs with Zion watching most of the action from the bench, so a full season from him could be enough to propel them into the playoff picture.
Keeping Zion healthy is going to be the mantra of the season, and if the Pels can do it, they should be much improved here even though they didn’t add any proven players.