The future of the New Orleans Pelicans is completely up in the air. As we round through the holidays and prepare to welcome in a New Year, the Pels would like to leave behind the 2024-25 NBA season but, unfortunately, they've still got multiple months left in their campaign. Thankfully, they can use the time they have left to build towards the future.
According to reports, this upcoming trade deadline could mark the end of the Zion Williamson era in the Big Easy. The team is expected to make all of their players available for deals. That doesn't necessarily mean Zion, Brandon Ingram, CJ McCollum, and the rest of the veterans will be moved this season. Still, it does give insight into the organization's chosen direction moving forward.
Earlier this year, Marc Stein had reported via The Stein Line that the Pelicans had identified three young players who they wanted to build around, with everyone else falling on the trading block: Trey Murphy III, Herb Jones, and rookie standout Yves Missi. Stein has since added a new player to the list of Pelicans' untouchables: second-year scorer, Jordan Hawkins.
Jordan Hawkins could be the future face of the New Orleans Pelicans franchise
Jordan Hawkins came into this season with a lot to prove. He spent two years playing for the University of Connecticut Huskies and declared for the 2023 NBA Draft after winning an NCAA championship playing for Head Coach Dan Hurley. The Pelicans took him at the end of the lottery with the 14th-overall pick, hoping to add some more outside shooting and offensive firepower off of their bench.
He had some flashes of greatness in his rookie year, including two games with over 30 points that showcased his incendiary shooting touch and boundless potential as a perimeter threat. With 15 games with three or more triples cashed in just his first season, Hawkins made it clear that his 3-point shooting would never be a concern.
It was everything else that kept him off of the 2023-24 NBA All-Rookie teams. He certainly wasn't expected to be a good defender out of college, but his weaknesses on that end of the court were especially glaring at times. Hawkins offered little on offense as a rookie outside of his deep shooting. He had a weak handle and couldn't finish at the rim with any consistency even when he was able to get to the cup. As an NBA freshman, he was limited to a one-dimensional role as a shooting specialist, and when he was having an off night, he was unplayable due to his shallow game.
Coming into this season, there were a lot of question marks surrounding Hawkins even with the promising flashes he had shown as a scorer and shooter. So far this year, though, he's answered them resoundingly, instilling confidence in his NBA future and also significantly raising the ceiling on his initial projections.
He was off to a torrid start before he went down with a daunting back injury. In his first seven games of the season, he put up 17.6 points, 4.6 rebounds, and 1.4 assists per outing while shooting 43 percent from the field and 38 percent from deep. While 43 percent usually isn't anything to write home about, it was a significant uptick from his 38 percent mark as a rookie and was especially impressive when factoring in the heightened difficulty of the shots he was taking with Zion, CJ, and Dejounte Murray out for most of those games.
With his back injury, his shooting numbers have deflated back to his rookie-year percentages. Considering the severity of his ailment, it's extremely encouraging that he was able to return at all, let alone in such a short amount of time. Even with him struggling with his efficiency while rebuilding his rhythm, he's still shown the strides he's taken as a playmaker and a defender — although he's still far from an effective stopper, he's made notable progress on that end of the court.
I'm extremely confident that Hawkins's shooting efficiency will improve when he gets his sea legs back under him, and it appears that the Pelicans believe so too. The massive progress he's already made in under a season-and-a-half in the NBA is extremely encouraging and suggests that his potential may have been underrated coming out of UConn. New Orleans absolutely made the right decision dubbing him as one of their untouchable players this season.