Every season is different (at least to some degree) from the one that came before it. That’s the case even if the team itself is largely similar to the one that trotted onto the hardwood in the season prior.
Part of the reason for this is because every year, roles change. Some players develop and take on larger loads, while others are relegated to diminished roles to make way for blossoming stars. In this article, we are going to focus on the former. The players who could very well see a more featured role in this year’s version of the New Orleans Pelicans. So, without further ado, here are three players whose role will increase next season.
3. Trey Murphy III
We’ll start with the most obvious one. Everyone who knows anything about the Pelicans is projecting Trey Murphy III to have a breakout run in 2023-24 (some even view him as someone who could take home the Most Improved Player of the Year award).
And after a brief (hopefully) injury scare, Murphy is back on track to have that breakout campaign. Murphy was a 5.4 PPG scorer in his rookie season. But last season, he leveled up to a 14.5 PPG performer. Look for that number to balloon up near the 20 PPG mark.
With guys like Zion Williamson, Brandon Ingram, and CJ McCollum expected to be sharing a large portion of their minutes next to Murphy, expect for the third-year forward to spend the majority of his time as the team’s number one off-ball scorer. And given Murphy’s ability to operate as a sniper or a lob finisher, he should be able to fulfill this assignment perfectly.
2. Dyson Daniels
Despite struggling to get playing time on Team Australia, look for Dyson Daniels to see an increased role in Year Two with the Pelicans. Like Murphy, this one should be a no-brainer. Daniels is a former lottery pick who is heading into his sophomore campaign in the NBA. But just in case that isn’t enough to warrant a larger role, here’s a more on-court explanation.
Williamson, Ingram, and McCollum are all gifted scorers. But none of them are pure point guards. As someone who earned comparisons to Lonzo Ball, Daniels is closer to that ideal.
One of the best publicly-available measures of a player’s passing ability is Ben Taylor’s Passer Rating metric (an estimate of a player’s passing ability on an ‘approximately’ 1-10 scale). Daniels led all Pelicans with a Passer Rating of 8.3. Having him on the floor more will give the Pelicans a more natural distributor next to more score-focused stars like Williamson and Ingram.
On top of that, with Williamson and McCollum playing a large volume of minutes, New Orleans is going to need surround them with defensive-centric role players. Daniels’ best attribute at this point is his merit as a perimeter stopper.
Now, if he can just tap into legendary shooting coach Fred Vinson’s mystical superpowers (remember what he did to Ball’s shot once upon a time?), Daniels can also improve his 3-point proficiency and serve as a credible spacer for the team (Lord knows they need that). If that happens, Daniels could see a similar second-year leap in production to the aforementioned Murphy.
1. Herbert Jones
Speaking of defense, the New Orleans Pelicans are going to need Herbert Jones to channel the absolute best version of his ‘Not on Herb’ persona. Williamson is a great player. But as of right now, he’s a pretty weak defender. That means you’ll want the other four players surrounding him to be strong defenders.
Normally, one of those strong defenders will be your team’s center. However, Jonas Valanciunas isn’t a very good defender (relative to his position). Meanwhile, Larry Nance Jr. (because of his injury history) isn’t someone who can handle a boatload of minutes, and Cody Zeller isn’t someone you want to hand a boatload of minutes to.
Since New Orleans (as currently constructed) doesn’t really have a center to anchor their defense, they will need to lean extra hard on guys like Jones to carry the show. We’ve talked about this before, but there is a reasonable chance that the Pelicans experiment with a Jones/Williamson/Brandon Ingram/CJ McCollum/Trey Murphy III lineup.
If something like that happens, it will be up to Jones to not only be the group’s best perimeter defender. But he’s also going to have to crash the glass, as he’ll be the unit’s de facto small-ball five.
At the end of the day, you want to play your best players as much as possible. Jones is one of the Pelicans’ very best players, so it makes sense that the team will field lineups that will get him the most minutes possible. And since most of their other best players are more offensively-slanted, that will likely mean that Jones will need to evolve his role from pure perimeter stopper to true defensive anchor.