New Orleans Pelicans: Where the Pels youngsters stand into the all-star break

The all-star break is finally upon the New Orleans Pelicans.

With the hectic nature of the day-to-day NBA season, it’s nice to sit back, enjoy the various contests that take place over the weekend, digest an all-star game that will hopefully be competitive, and get away from the breakneck pace of a basketball year still very much marked by the Covid-19 pandemic.

All-star weekend also serves as a time of reflection. The New Orleans Pelicans have played 36 games, exactly half of their scheduled 72. The Pels are currently eleventh in the western conference, tied with the Oklahoma City Thunder and behind the .500 Memphis Grizzlies.

That’s probably not good enough for a team aspiring to make the playoffs; however, the Pels are only one place away from making the play-in tournament that will take place at the end of the regular season. In that case, New Orleans could go into the postseason without being ranked among the top eight teams in the west.

It has been a largely inconsistent season for the New Orleans Pelicans. Their defensive and offensive performances have fluctuated almost at random. New Orleans started as one of the more plodding teams on attack, but are now a top five offense and a bottom five defense. That is contradictory to what most expected after the arrival of new head coach Stan Van Gundy.

Van Gundy has failed to imprint his personality on a team that needed a defensive retooling. The longtime NBA veteran is still tweaking things on a regular basis, trying to hit the right chord in order to maximize this Pelicans squad. Van Gundy even publicly called out his team over the week.

Yet, for all the Pels’ turbulences, they will once again be present during all-star weekend.

Zion Williamson is a first time all-star despite having played less than what would constitute a regular NBA season. It is the eighth year in a row that a New Orleans player is given that honor. Williamson and Nickeil Alexander-Walker were also selected for the Rising Stars game, although it won’t actually take place this year.

Still, it’s nice that the Pelicans’ youngsters are getting recognized early on in his career. Williamson and Alexander-Walker, among a couple of others, are the building blocks for New Orleans’ future.

Here is how the Pels’ up-and-comers are doing headed into the all-star break: