New Orleans Pelicans: 3 takeaways from Summer League win over OKC

The New Orleans Pelicans stayed undefeated in Summer League, beating the OKC Thunder 80-65, and the hype is starting to build around the young Pels.

Summer League is not to be taken too seriously, as a lot of these guys aren’t going to be in the league, so you can’t overreact too much either way.

But there are certain things you want to see from the young players, mostly things like how they deal with the increased speed and physicality, shot selection and a general eye test for whether they look like a real NBA player.

So far the young New Orleans Pelicans are passing the tests and it looks like they have a couple who will be meaningful role players for the Pels this season.

New Orleans Pelicans: So far, so good for the Pelicans NBA Draft

We won’t really know anything until we see how the Pelicans’ draft picks play with Zion Williamson, Brandon Ingram and the rest of the roster, but so far so good for the Pelicans draft.

Both Trey Murphy III and Herbert Jones have passed the eye test and both look physically ready for the NBA.

I was actually surprised at how strong Murphy looks, as he was able to get into the paint a few times and finish in the post, as well as with floaters, parts of his game I hadn’t really seen having watched very little of him in college.

Most importantly, both guys look like they will be plus defenders when the games get real. Murphy and Jones have great length and really get after it on the defensive end.

They had five steals between them and were both flying around off the ball looking to help and make blocks on the weak side.

It’s still early days but the “David Griffin can’t draft!” narrative may be starting to change.