The New Orleans Pelicans have two of the best young players in the NBA in Zion Williamson and Brandon Ingram.
But after trading Jrue Holiday to the Milwaukee Bucks, the Pelicans have lacked a reliable third scoring option. There have been various guys who have played that role, from Lonzo Ball to Eric Bledsoe (ugh), to Nickeil Alexander-Walker and even J.J. Redick at times, but none of them did it consistently enough to take the pressure off the Pels’ “Big-Two.”
With some shakeups in the roster and three starters on other teams, the Pelicans are still going to be looking for that guy who can step up consistently and score 15-18 points and occasionally have a big night.
There are some obvious options, along with a few wild cards who might come out of nowhere and surprise some people.
New Orleans Pelicans: Jonas Valanciunas can score
The Pelicans traded away Bledsoe and Steven Adams for Jonas Valanciunas, who is a much better scorer than either and the frontrunner to be the 3rd guy for New Orleans.
Valanciunas averaged 17.1 points per game last season for Memphis and could be even better for the Pelicans depending on how he fits with Zion Williamson.
Zion needs space to operate, so I can see Valanciunas shooting more 3-point shots this season, but not getting as many looks in the post. He should also benefit from some easy put backs when his man leaves to double-team Zion.
But overall Valanciunas will probably take fewer shots than he did in Memphis, which might hurt his scoring average depending on how he shoots from long range.
New Orleans Pelicans: Devonte’ Graham has to be more consistent
Devonte’ Graham has shown he can have some huge games, as he did when he went off for 40 points against Brooklyn a few seasons ago.
Graham’s role was all over the place for the Hornets after they drafted LaMelo Ball, and his scoring lines often looked a lot like Lonzo Ball’s, where he would have a couple of big games followed with a couple of bad ones.
Also like Lonzo, Graham relies heavily on 3-point shots to get his points, putting up 8.7 of them per game and hitting 37.5 percent, which leads to a lot of “all or nothing” type performances.
Graham has never played with anyone as good as Zion Williamson, so he is going to get a lot more wide-open shots than he did in Charlotte, so it is all about consistency.
Graham does not drive to the rim much or shoot a ton of foul shots, so it’s hard for me to imagine him scoring much more than the 14.8 he averaged last season.
Graham has been good in the clutch-time over his career, which is good news for the Pelicans, as they’ve been horrible late in games over the last two seasons.
There are also two wild cards who could step up and surprise some people as the Pels’ 3rd scoring option.
New Orleans Pelicans: Nickeil Alexander-Walker is ready to make a leap
I think NAW is the most likely of the Pelicans’ young players to make a big leap this season. He played for Canada in the Olympic qualifiers, and though they didn’t ultimately make it, he got some valuable experience against really good competition.
NAW averaged 11 points on inefficient shooting last season, but also had some big games where he looked like a star. If he can improve his shot selection, cut down the turnovers and shoot more efficiently, he can be the Pels’ third scoring option. But that is a whole lot of ifs.
Trey Murphy III is a long shot
I may be getting ahead of myself but I love what I have seen from Trey Murphy III so far. I don’t think he’s quite ready to take on the role of 3rd scoring option, but I do think he’ll have some big games for the Pelicans this season.
Murphy III might be the Pelicans’ best 3-point shooter and is going to get a lot of open looks. He has shown that he should be able to defend enough to stay on the floor, so if he gets big minutes as a rookie, he may end up scoring double digits consistently.
The Pelicans have a very young team with a lot of guys trying to get minutes, but one of them will need to step up and be the third guy who consistently gets the team points.