The New Orleans Pelicans have an exciting collection of individual talent that didn’t meet expectations as a team.
Zion Williamson had a breakout season, Brandon Ingram was consistent again, Lonzo Ball had his moments and the young Pelicans progressed but they didn’t have the team success they were hoping for.
You can blame Lonzo’s inconsistency, Ingram’s defense, Stan Van Gundy’s coaching or untimely injuries but the truth is the Pels had some glaring flaws as a team aside from any of those issues that were the reasons they were not in the play-in tournament.
Here are five holes the New Orleans Pelicans need to fix this offseason.
New Orleans Pelicans: The Pels need shooters
David Griffin already addressed this issue in a recent press conference, and I have written a ton about it, so I won’t belabor the issue.
The Pelicans dropped to 26th in the NBA in 3-point percentage, shooting just 34.8 percent from long range. To give you an idea of how bad they were, the best team, the Los Angeles Clippers, shot 41.1 percent from the 3-point line.
The Pels were also 25th in 3-point attempts, which makes some sense considering Zion was handling the ball a lot and took a ton of shots in the paint, but he was also double teamed pretty much every time he touched the ball, which should lead to a lot more open, makable 3-point shots than the Pelicans took.
This has to be addressed and the Pelicans should definitely consider a guy like Doug McDermott in free agency 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.
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.
New Orleans Pelicans: Veteran winners
The Pelicans need to get tougher, they need to get better defensively and they need to shoot the ball better, that much we all agree on (I think), but they also need some veteran players who have a history of making winning plays.
They need a few guys who have been around the league, played for winning organizations and can mentor and lead the Pelicans in the exact types of game situations that they botched so many times this season.
There are veterans who can take players aside and say “this is what you need to do here” or “this is where you screwed up,” and these guys sometimes have the ear of young players even better than the coach does.
I think James Johnson has the potential to be one of these guys, which is why the Pels should re-sign him, but they need as many smart, winners as they can find.
Even if that player isn’t a top free agent, the New Orleans Pelicans need to find a guy or two with rings on their fingers who can show the young guys what they need to do to win one.
The Pelicans need a scorer other than Zion Williamson and Brandon Ingram
Zion Williamson and Brandon Ingram were one of the more durable and productive duos in the NBA this season.
They were the second-highest scoring teammates and I think they will take that crown as soon as next season, as Zion is going to score more than 30 a game if he shoots more free throws and Ingram is bank for at least 24-25 points per game himself.
The problem is that the Pelicans lacked a consistent 3rd option to go with them.
The good news is that he may already be on the team in the form of Lonzo Ball, who often looked like he was ready to be part of the Big 3 and had some monster games.
But he also disappeared a lot, couldn’t stay healthy and was very inconsistent shooting the ball.
If he improves in these areas, he will be that guy, but if not, the Pels need to find someone who is unless they think Nickeil Alexander-Walker is going to make a big jump, which he might.
The Pelicans could try to trade their first round pick for a guy like Malcolm Brogdon or a similar veteran who is ready to step in and be the consistent third option they were missing this season.
The New Orleans Pelicans aren’t far from being a good team but they do have some big holes to fix in the offseason.