The New Orleans Pelicans should aim to upgrade their shooting guard position at the upcoming trade deadline
The New Orleans Pelicans may be considered one of the worst teams in the NBA at the moment, but contrary to popular belief, they aren’t that far from contention.
Give these Pelicans another star-caliber player, and a couple of bench pieces and this team could be elite. I’m not joking, Brandon Ingram, Zion Williamson, and Steven Adams are an incredible nucleus, and I think they’re close.
The question is, where should this team improve? At what position? I think the logical answer to those questions would be aiming to improve at shooting guard.
Why the New Orleans Pelicans should be looking for an upgrade at shooting guard
There are two key reasons why I think the New Orleans Pelicans should look at improving their shooting guard position. The first is the poor performances the Pelicans have gotten from that spot all year long.
Simply put, this Pelicans team has a Jrue Holiday-sized void at the shooting guard position and the players they’ve tried to fill that void with haven’t worked. J.J. Redick is cooked, Eric Bledsoe is streaky, Lonzo Ball’s a point guard, and Nickeil Alexander-Walker is still a project.
The fact of the matter is that part of the reason why the Pelicans are failing is that their shooting guard position isn’t performing. If the Pelicans could just get an elite starter with a 3 point shot in that spot, they’d be much better.
The second reason why I believe the Pelicans should be eyeing the shooting guard position is that the trade market is looking ripe right now. As we’ve written about before, nearly every team in the NBA has their eyes on Bradley Beal’s situation in Washington. Though reports say Beal isn’t available, anything can change in the NBA.
Beyond Beal, there are targets like Victor Oladipo and Zach LaVine. Any of these targets could be the player that puts the Pelicans over the edge, and all of them play for teams that are looking at a lengthy rebuild. That means they’d probably want the Pelicans’ collection of young players and first-round draft picks.
Adding a 20-point per game scorer who can shoot in the high-30s from beyond the arc to this team, sounds amazing to me. It’s why I believe that the New Orleans Pelicans should put all their chips in and acquire a top-notch shooting guard at the upcoming trade deadline.