New Orleans Pelicans: 3 storylines to follow in the 2nd half of the season

New Orleans Pelicans: Can the Pels still make the playoffs?

The New Orleans Pelicans may be idle at the deadline and wait until the offseason to try and retool the roster.

If so, they could play their way back into playoff contention, as the West is full of middling teams at the bottom who are all within shouting distance of one another.

The Pelicans will go into the second half four games back of the 8th seed, but with the play-in game a factor for this season, they will probably never truly be out of it.

In my opinion, the best-case scenario is that the Pelicans play their way into the play-in game, get some valuable reps in the process, but still end up in the lottery.

Let’s face facts, without a major turnaround in how they play defense, the Pels are not winning a playoff series against anyone in the West.

Though they have shown that they can beat anyone when they play well, the Pels have not shown that they can do it consistently. Just look at recent history, when the Pels beat the first-place Jazz only to lose the next two to the Bulls and Heat.

The New Orleans Pelicans can get some valuable high-pressure games this season without making the playoffs, which may be for the best, as they still need to add a lot of talent to this roster and would love the chance at a top pick.