New Orleans Pelicans do right by E.J. Liddell and finalize roster

The New Orleans Pelicans start their regular season on Wednesday and made some final adjustments to the roster before the season gets underway.

The Pels had a quiet and productive offseason that ended with a competitive training camp and strong performances in the preseason.

The only dark clouds were the injuries to Jaxson Hayes and EJ Liddell. Hayes will be out for at least a few weeks after injuring his elbow in preseason and Liddell will likely miss most of the season after tearing his ACL in a Summer League disaster.

The worst part for EJ Liddell was that he hadn’t even signed a contract, so was left hanging for most of the offseason as New Orleans shuffled several guys in and out of two-way contracts.

But yesterday the team announced that they were going to do right by their second-round pick and gave him a two-way contract that will allow him to rehab and possibly play in the G-League or with the team later in the season.

I thought Liddell could have been another draft steal for the Pelicans, as he has the shooting, defense and intangibles to be an impact player off the bench.

With Liddell locked in, the New Orleans Pelicans roster is complete and ready to get the 2022-23 season started.

New Orleans Pelicans final roster

Here is the Pelicans roster for the 2022-23 season, including the two-way contracts:

• CJ McCollum
• Brandon Ingram
• Jonas Valanciunas
• Zion Williamson
• Devonte’ Graham
• Larry Nance Jr.
• Jaxson Hayes
• Dyson Daniels
• Garrett Temple
• Kira Lewis Jr.
• Trey Murphy III
• Willy Hernangomez
• Herbert Jones
• Naji Marshall
• Jose Alvarado
• Dereon Seabron
• EJ Liddell

The Pelicans have a deep and balanced roster with far fewer question marks than they’ve had in years past.

They will have to wait out the injury to Jaxson Hayes and Kira Lewis Jr. is still recovering from his season-ending injury from last season, but everyone else should be healthy, ready to go and locked into a role even though there will still be a lot of early competition for minutes.

This roster stability should give the Pels an advantage early in the season and hopefully they can avoid the disastrous start that set them back last year.