The New Orleans Pelicans are one of the youngest teams in the NBA. The only rotation players they deploy that are older than 25 are CJ McCollum, Larry Nance Jr., and Jonas Valanciunas, and none of that trio tops 31.
Few teams in the NBA are driven by so many youngsters. The Pelicans briefly led the Western Conference last season on the back of their youth movement, and most of their players should only improve with age.
But there are only so many minutes to go around, and the Pelicans will have some hard decisions to make on which players to prioritize. Zion Williamson and Brandon Ingram are a given (and so is the recently drafted Jordan Hawkins), so let’s look at three other players the Pelicans need to nurture and one who may need to be put on the back burner.