New Orleans Pelicans: 3 things we need to see in the preseason finale

New Orleans Pelicans: Josh Hart needs to make a shot

This is only the preseason and we often see guys play well only to disappear when the games get real or sometimes step up in the regular season after being terrible in the preseason.

Let’s hope it’s the latter for Josh Hart, who has been shooting bricks all preseason so far.

Hart is a quality defender, a plus rebounder and you can count on his hustle, but those things aren’t going to be enough this season; he needs to hit shots.

Hart has 6th Man of the Year potential if he can shoot closer to 40 percent from 3-point range, which would be a big jump from his 32 percent from last season, which was the worst of his career.

Hart hit 39.5 percent from long range as a rookie, so we know he has it in him, but so far this preseason he’s been broke, shooting 20 percent from 3-point range and just 27 percent overall.

Again, this is preseason, so I am not going to get too worried, but there is a lot of pressure on Hart to shoot the ball better and if he doesn’t that pressure will build and carry into the regular season.

Hart can be an X-Factor for the Pelicans but if he doesn’t hit shots he’ll start to lose minutes to guys like Naji Marshall and Trey Murphy III, who have similar defensive versatility but can also contribute on offense.

So that Hart doesn’t head into preseason with this hanging over him, it would be nice to see him knock down a few 3-point shots in the finale and get that confidence going.