Oh, Bill Simmons, you just couldn't help yourself, could you? This past offseason, the long-time sports journalist first suggested the New Orleans Pelicans be relocated to a new city, and now, over five months later, he's back with the same idea. The first time around, Simmons had the Pelicans fan base heated, saying the city was a market that didn't respond well to basketball and going so far as to say there wasn't a fan base to care if they were relocated.
This time, Simmons took a calmer approach. He highlighted that the entire league knows the Pelicans are in a bad spot, that players don't overall like playing in New Orleans, and that a big factor in all their problems is the incompetence of their ownership.
To be fair, I'm all for coming down on this team's ownership group, as time and time again, it feels like they have been committed to mediocrity and only care about the bottom line. That being said, New Orleans deserves an NBA team, and this post-All-Star break run proves that.
New Orleans is trending in the right direction
New Orleans is 10-6 since the break and has a full, healthy starting five for the first time in a long time with Dejounte Murray back and playing in his 10th game on Saturday. Once again, we are seeing that when this team competes and doesn't even have to win every night, the fan base rallies behind them. Sure, at points this season, the Smoothie King Center has been a ghost town, but the team is figuring things out, and a potential turnaround next season should have fans bought into the future.
Tearing away a team from a fan base that only demands a team that competes and putting them in Seattle would just be counterproductive. Seattle has deserved an NBA team since the day it lost one, and that's an opinion I share with Simmons. At the same time, taking a team from one passionate fan base and giving it to another passionate fan base makes zero sense.
It makes even less sense considering the overwhelming talent in the league right now, as expansion doesn't just seem like a fun idea to spice things up—it appears necessary.
I understand the general idea of relocating a team like the Grizzlies to a bigger market in the same state, like moving them from Memphis to Nashville. But the idea of punishing the Pelicans by moving them out of New Orleans is wrong. The Pelicans have found some momentum and appear to be building towards something. They have real direction, real talent, and with a few moves this summer, like adding shooting and finding the right coach, they could quickly find themselves back in the playoff hunt. So why should they be punished? They shouldn't, and the NBA can't let it happen.