The New Orleans Pelicans have made some dramatic changes to their roster that they hope will propel them into the playoffs.
But the Western Conference is going to be highly competitive once again, so to get there the Pelicans are going to have to displace one or more of these teams, which isn’t going to be easy.
The Jazz, Suns, Lakers, Clippers, Nuggets, Mavericks and Warriors are locks to be playoff contenders which leaves very little room for error for the rest of the West.
The Pelicans finished in 11th place last season, just outside of the play-in tournament, so if they are going to improve upon that they need to knock off a few of the teams that finished ahead of them in the standings.
Here are the three most likely candidates.
New Orleans Pelicans: The San Antonio Spurs are rebuilding
The most likely candidate is the San Antonio Spurs, who finished with just two more wins than the Pelicans last season on their way to a 10th place finish.
The Spurs have a lot of young talent and are well coached, so you can never count them out, but they have lost some key pieces.
DeMar DeRozan was shipped to Chicago, which will obviously be a blow. They signed free agent Doug McDermott to replace him but McDermott is no DeRozan.
The Spurs took Josh Primo in the draft, one of the youngest players and not a guy who is expected to make an impact right away.
The Spurs have some nice pieces, but I think the Pels have improved enough to overtake them, especially if Zion Williamson continues to improve under coach Willie Green.
New Orleans Pelicans: Overtaking the Memphis Grizzlies won’t be easy
The Pelicans have a nice rivalry with the Grizzlies, one that they have mostly dominated in the one-on-one battles over the last few years, but Memphis got the last laugh, finishing in 8th place last season and making the play-in tournament.
The Grizzlies have had an interesting offseason. They traded Jonas Valanciunas to the Pels for Steven Adams and Eric Bledsoe and then flipped Bledsoe for a load of players that they then flipped for more.
It’s still too early to predict what their final roster will look like but I think they’ve downgraded significantly going from Valanciunas to Adams. I’m also not sure the Pelicans didn’t get the better player in the draft even after moving back seven spots in the trade.
These two teams are going to be near one another in the standings, so winning the head-to-head battles will be crucial for the New Orleans Pelicans.
Both teams have had offseasons that have been questioned, so we’ll have to wait to see how it all turns out, but I don’t think the Grizzlies are markedly better and may be vulnerable to being overtaken by the Pels.
New Orleans Pelicans: The Trail Blazers could take a step back
For the last several years, the narrative around the Trail Blazers has been “have they done enough around Damian Lillard?”
Lillard is one of the best players in the league and his presence alone is enough to ensure a team is at least competitive.
The Blazers will have a new coach and lost some key players in Carmelo Anthony, Zach Collins and Enes Kanter.
They did re-sign Normal Powell to a big deal and are hoping a full season of him will be enough to get the Trail Blazers in the playoffs again.
I’m not so sure, as this is pretty much the same team but a year older, so one key injury could to any of their three guards could be catastrophic.
I wouldn’t want to bet against Lillard but the question of whether Portland has done enough around him still remains. Could this be the year they finally take a step back?
It’s not going to be easy for the New Orleans Pelicans to make the playoffs, so they have to get off to a good start when the schedule is easy and not go on any extended losing streaks.