The 3 biggest strengths of the New Orleans Pelicans roster

The New Orleans Pelicans can bury teams with pace

One of the things that baffled me about Stan Van Gundy’s offensive strategy is that the Pels didn’t seem to run that much, which made no sense when you had a team with Lonzo Ball and Zion Williamson.

But it’s hard to argue with the results, as the Pelicans were 9th in total scoring and 10th in pace last season even with Zion often walking the ball up the floor.

In other words, the Pelicans played pretty fast last season even though they didn’t make it a priority, which I think Willie Green is about to change.

I expect Green to use his young team to his advantage by trying to run other teams off the floor. This starts on the defensive end, where guys like Marshall and Murphy are going to use their length to get deflections and steals that lead to run outs.

The Pelicans bench is much younger as well, and could be a weapon this season instead of a huge weakness, as they have a versatile and athletic group that is going to get after it on defense and try to run, run, run.

If you are going to have a young team you may as well lean into it, and I expect the Pelicans to be near the top of the NBA in pace as well as scoring this season.