New Orleans Pelicans: Evaluating the race for the 8th seed

The New Orleans Pelicans have playoff hopes this season, but so does every team in the Western Conference.

The New Orleans Pelicans will be in a very tight race to make the playoffs this season. By my count, seven teams are locks for a playoff berth, both LA teams, Denver, Utah, Dallas, Golden State, and Portland.

You may quibble with Golden State and Portland but both were hit hard by injuries last season and will bounce back assuming they aren’t as unlucky in that department.

This is a year where seemingly every team but Oklahoma City has hopes of making the playoffs. With seven playoff locks, the New Orleans Pelicans will contend with six teams:  Houston, Phoenix, Memphis, San Antonio, Sacramento, and Minnesota for the final spot.

Zion Williamson, Brandon Ingram, and Co will have their work cut out for them this year if they want to make the playoffs. Let’s look team by team at some key offseason moves and how they look on paper before the season tips off on Dec 22nd.

Houston Rockets

Houston would’ve been a shoo-in for the playoffs just two months ago, then things got weird. Mike D’Antoni informed the team he would no longer be the head coach, then joined the Nets as an assistant. Daryl Morey stepped down as GM to spend more time with his family but two weeks later was running the 76ers.

James Harden and Russell Westbrook then became unhappy in a situation entirely of their own making and demanded a trade. Westbrook was then shipped to Washington for John Wall and a 2023 first-round pick. If Wall isn’t healthy or effective this trade is a huge L for the Rockets but if he’s close to his 2016-17 form this could be a win for both sides.

Signing Christian Wood for three years at $41 million is a smart signing which puts small-ball firmly in the rearview. Add the low-risk high-reward signing of Boogie Cousins and Houston has the potential to be scary inside and out.

The big caveat here is what happens to Harden. His trade demand still stands, although he’s expanded his destinations to nearly every contender in the East since his initial choice, Brooklyn, hasn’t come through yet. If Harden is traded the Rockets will either get much deeper by getting a package similar to what Brooklyn was rumored to offer, or swap on All-NBA player for another (Ben Simmons from Philly).

Whatever happens, Houston has the highest odds of any team on this list of making the playoffs. The only way they don’t is if everything goes wrong; Wall and Cousins are bad, Harden checks out on the season after the team refuses to trade him, or the players Houston gets back for Harden are ineffective after relocating to Houston.