New Orleans Pelicans: Power ranking the Southwest Division
#2 – New Orleans Pelicans
The most underrated adage in all of sports is addition by subtraction. There are certain things that deter a team so much that just by them no longer being there anymore makes the team better. Look no further than the New Orleans Pelicans.
Stan Van Gundy took time away from interrupting the great Brian Anderson’s commentary to interrupting the Pelicans roster as a whole. It was as if Gundy was preserved in a block of ice since 2009 (the last time he was a good head coach) and coached the team with his mentality from that year’s Magic team.
Basketball has changed so much in the past decade, and the second-most talented Van Gundy couldn’t seem to figure that out. Awful lineups, late-game execution that would make Anthony Lynn cringe, and a personality that rubbed the team the wrong way the moment he got the position.
If he wasn’t bad enough, Eric Bledsoe was on the team playing real minutes. Last year Bledsoe had a lower win share than the likes of Bryn Forbes and Bismack Biyambo. His offensive rating was 310th in the league. These stats don’t even sound factual, but unfortunately for Pelicans fans, are very real.
Steven Adams has also departed, which is another major victory for New Orleans. The weird part is Adams is a decent NBA player. He has good efficiency numbers and is an average defender for the most part. Rebounding the ball, he is above average and is elite at setting screens (a lost art in today’s NBA). The issue is he clogs the lane and can be slow on the court.
The Pelicans have rid themselves of these demons and have replaced them with new additions Willie Green and Jonas Valanciunas. It would be hard for Willie Green to coach this team any worse than it was last year. He would have to purposely try to fail, something that obviously won’t happen.
Valanciunas is a better player than Adams and a better fit for this team. He has shooting touch, is better offensively, and has more success running up-and-down the court. He’s widely regarded as one of the more underrated players in the NBA and should work well with the current roster construct.
The Pelicans haven’t done a perfect job replacing departed talent, however. The team lost Lonzo Ball and essentially replaced him with Devonte’ Graham. Ball was putting it together at the end of his Pelican’s tenure and is only getting better. He is one of the best facilitators in the league, something that could’ve been valuable if he was allowed to set up the offense.
Graham is a largely inefficient volume scorer who doesn’t offer 50% of the playmaking ability of Ball. Not to mention he is an inferior defender, and it’s hard to justify this move on any level.
New Orleans might be able to erase the thought of losing Ball if their first-round pick Trey Murphy III can be the steal he is shaping out to be. The Virginia product lit the Summer League on fire and has a game easily translatable to the NBA.
With the improved coaching and talent of the roster, it’s hard for me to think the Pelicans don’t take a step forward this season. New Orleans is better on paper than teams like the Grizzlies, but cohesion was what cost them in the past. The Pelicans are a team, that at worst- should be in the Play-In Tournament.