New Orleans Pelicans: 4 glaring holes to fix this offseason
The New Orleans Pelicans need to get smarter
Another of the Pelicans’ glaring problems is that they lack basketball I.Q.
David Griffin listed this as one of the areas where the Pelicans need to improve and I totally agree, as this team makes so many young and stupid mistakes that they can be frustrating to watch at times.
They make several inexplicable turnovers every game, often just throwing the ball away due to lack of focus or carelessness. Although they improved slightly from last season, the Pels were still 22nd in the NBA in turnovers.
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The Pelicans were also one of the worst teams in the clutch, which often comes down to making the right play and being smart.
The Pelicans blew 14 games in which they led by double-digits and a couple of them were so bad that they deserve to be put in the Hall-of-Fame of bad losses. The meltdown vs. the Pacers is the first that springs to mind, as the Pels had about ten chances to call a timeout to advance the ball and instead just kept letting Indiana steal it, losing in the last seconds.
The Pels need more players who make smart plays, who know game situations and who value the basketball. This goes hand-in-hand with the next point.