New Orleans Pelicans: Keep an eye on this player in Summer League

The New Orleans Pelicans Summer League schedule commences this weekend and there will be plenty of familiar faces.

Three of the players (Jose Alvarado, Naji Marshall, Trey Murphy III) have already gotten run in the playoffs, so the Pelicans will be a little more experienced than some of the other teams.

Add in Dyson Daniels and EJ Liddell, and the Pelicans have a roster that should dominate in the Summer League.

But there will also be some unfamiliar faces, including Dereon Seabron, an un-drafted guard/wing player out of NC State.

He’s an interesting player who got a lot of pre-draft buzz after strong workouts, but he ended up going un-drafted anyway. The New Orleans Pelicans found a gem in the un-drafted free-agent market last season with Jose Alvarado, who is now part of the rotation on a full-time contract.

Seabron has a lot of talent, and hopes to put it on display in the Summer League to possibly earn his way into a two-way contract.

New Orleans Pelicans Summer League: Dereon Seabron’s strengths and weaknesses

Dereon Seabron flew under the radar this season, mostly because his team was terrible, finishing last in the ACC.

But Seabron averaged 17.3 points, 8.2 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game as a high usage player who was often initiating the offense. He had a 25.5 percent usage rate, so was doing most of the creating for his team. His assist numbers aren’t great for a guy who had the ball in his hands so much, but he was also surrounded by a sub-par cast that missed a lot of shots.

He’s very athletic and has a way of sort of slithering to the rim and drawing in the defense. He is a solid finisher in the lane and also has the vision to set up teammates. Seabron has the length to be a disruptive defender at 6-foot-6 and averaged 1.4 steals per game for NC State.

He’s a very good rebounder for his position and is adept and grabbing boards and taking the ball end-to-end, flashing his greatest strength, which is finishing in transition:

He’s a good passer who can make plays from the wing and play some at the point, which is the type of versatile player the Pelicans have been adding over the last few seasons, showing a preference for position-less wings who can defend multiple spots.

Seabron does have some glaring flaws, namely that he can’t shoot, hitting just 25 percent from long range on a low number of attempts. He’s mostly a slasher and a guy who beats people off the dribble, so defenders in the NBA are just going to back off until he proves he can make a shot from outside the lane.

I think Seabron is going to be one of those guys who could dominate in Summer League, where there is little defense and a lot of points in transition where he thrives.

Expect him to post some big numbers, but whether that can translate to a spot on an NBA roster is yet to be seen.