Thanksgiving evaluation of the New Orleans Pelicans

New Orleans Pelicans Thanksgiving evaluation: Disappointing or just plain bad

These four guys have not played well this season or have been exposed after playing too much.

Garrett Temple, Tomas Satoransky, Naji Marshall, Jaxson Hayes

The first two guys on this list are journeyman veterans who probably weren’t expected to play as much as they have been, particularly Temple, who hasn’t been terrible, but is playing too much.

Satoransky has been worse than advertised and has completely forgotten how or when to shoot the basketball. By my count, he’s had about one game where he looked like an NBA player.

These two aren’t the problem, as they shouldn’t be in an NBA rotation, which underscores how much David Griffin blew the Lonzo Ball ordeal. He should have traded him at the deadline and might have gotten more than dead weight.

Naji Marshall has been a disappointment, as I thought he’d be providing the energy, defense and occasional 3-point shooting that the Pels need off the bench. That hasn’t happened, he’s barely played and has only made one shot from long-range all season.

But the title of biggest disappointment undoubtedly goes to Jaxson Hayes, who can’t even get off the bench on a four-win team. He’s been soundly beat out for minutes by Hernangomez, hasn’t shown any growth and has put the Pelicans in a tough position.

He’s not good enough to play, has no trade value and benching him is just further proof that he was a terrible pick at #8. Sorry, I want Hayes to be good, but his complete lack of development in three seasons is just bad, especially after it looked like he had figured things out somewhat at the end of last season.

I get that he was a raw prospect, and I didn’t expect him to suddenly have a ton of refined basketball skills, but I did expect effort and we haven’t seen it so far.

The Pelicans are trying to stay afloat without their best player and the effort and heart have mostly been there, but they have a long way to go, especially on the bench.