New Orleans Pelicans: Should Brandon Ingram play at shooting guard?
By Tim Burke
New Orleans Pelicans: A big summer in the works
Josh Hart consistently does the little things like rebounding, defending any opponent regardless of position, and bringing hustle. He impacts winning night in and night out. Even when his shot wasn’t falling in the early parts of the season, Hart didn’t let that stop him from bringing energy every time he checked into the game.
Hart is the perfect sixth man for this team. Just like Lonzo, the only way Hart leaves town is if a contract extension can’t be reached. He is a restricted free agent this summer.
Should Hart and Ball resign, the Pelicans will be nearly capped out just with their starting lineup. Not exactly where a team on the rise wants to be.
That means the first move would be to find a way to offload Bledsoe and the nearly $40 million owed to him for the two seasons following this one. Getting that large of a salary off the books gives (the sooner, the better) the front office some flexibility with filling out the rest of this roster.
I think the first move should be sliding Ingram over to the off-guard spot and finding a 3-and-D wing to play the small forward. Josh Hart is capable of doing so, even if he gives up a little height to most forwards at 6-foot-5.
However, Hart takes pride in his defense and that height difference hasn’t killed the Pels in his minutes so far. While I would be alright with Hart starting in this scenario, his value as a super-sub is what I like about him most.
This is why New Orleans should be targeting wings on the trade market right now. The ideal trade target would be for the Pels to follow the Heat blueprint last season.
A player in the Jae Crowder mold would be perfect alongside BI, Zion, Lonzo, and Steven Adams. Neither BI nor Zion is quite up to the task of dealing with elite wings on both ends of the floor and someone in the mold of Crowder could ease their defensive loads.