New Orleans Pelicans: Power ranking the Southwest Division
The New Orleans Pelicans are a team that has a lot to prove this upcoming season. Last year there was an evident lack of cohesion and an inability to close out games. It’s why the team only could muster 31 wins and had to retool their roster this off-season.
The Pels aren’t the only team in their division to have a new roster with a renewed focus heading into the 2021-22 campaign. The Southwest teams look vastly different from the end of last season, meaning it’s interesting to see where the Pelicans fall into things. Where do the Pelicans rank in the Southwest Division?
Let’s investigate.
New Orleans Pelicans: Southwest Division power rankings
#5 – Houston Rockets
The Rockets continue to be at the bottom of the league despite turning over a large part of their roster. The talk of Houston starts with their draft and the second-overall pick, Jalen Green.
The six-foot-five combo guard is a walking bucket with athleticism that could one day project him as a top-five player in the league. Green is my frontrunner for Rookie of the Year and someone who should put up numbers effortlessly with his projected volume.
Funny enough, they even got a guy who is a discount Jalen Green in Josh Cristopher later in the first round. He’s someone who I thought would be picked earlier than where he was and could be a good flier pick for the Rockets.
As far as off-seasons moves went, it was far from inspiring. Handing Boston castaway Daniel Theis a four-year/$36M was one of the worst deals handed out this year. Besides retaining Khyri Thomas on a multi-year deal, the Rockets remained largely quiet throughout the break. For a roster that has depth issues and holes at most positions, it’s mind-boggling.
The front office is putting a lot of faith in Kevin Porter Jr. to handle the brunt of the scoring, but I’m not sure he is capable of doing that on a decent team. According to WAR RAPTOR, a metric that values offensive and defensive value, Porter Jr. was simply dreadful. He was in the third quadrant of the graph, which means he had a negative win above replacement on both ends of the court.
Outside of the rookies, the other glimmer of hope of Houston is Christian Woods. He is an overrated offensive weapon, but defensively he is a solid anchor in the middle of the floor. The Rockets are abysmal defensively from top-to-bottom, which makes Wood even that more valuable to the team.
The Rockets are a bottom-feeder franchise right now and are putting faith in multiple guys who are barely over the legal age to lead them out of the dog days. Unless there is a mid-season acquisition or unforeseen breakout, the Rockets should be sitting at the bottom of the Southwest Division and Western Conference as a whole.