The entire NBA world is complaining about tanking, from commissioner Adam Silver down to every single podcast episode. And in the midst of it all, the one team that is not tanking? The New Orleans Pelicans.
Now, it has to be said first that the Pelicans are not some righteous paragon of what ethical basketball looks like. They have tanked themselves in recent years to maneuver into the proper draft position. This season, however, they are without their first-round pick after trading it to the Atlanta Hawks for the right to draft Maryland big man Derik Queen.
Despite not owning their pick, the Pelicans got off to a disastrous start this season. Some of that was driven by injury, but much of it was driven by an ill-fitting roster, an overwhelmed head coach, and the prominence of young players in the rotation, including two lottery rookies.
The Pelicans are winning games
As the league enters its stretch run, however, the Pelicans are righting the ship. After carrying the league's worst record for much of the first half of the season, the Pels are winning games and moving up the ladder -- from the bottom to not-quite the bottom, to be fair, but it's movement.
New Orleans now has 18 wins, four clear of the Sacramento Kings at 14-47, and with another trio of teams -- Washington, Brooklyn and Indiana -- below with 15 or 16 victories. Tied with the Pelicans are the Utah Jazz with 18 wins. The Dallas Mavericks, Memphis Grizzlies and Chicago Bulls would all love to lose as much as possible in the coming weeks as well.
That is nine teams in total, eight of which are doing everything that they can to lose basketball games. And that means when the Pelicans face off against one, it's a Big Easy path to victory.
More than that, however, the Pelicans are no longer a rollover victory for even the good teams in the league. They recently notched wins against the Golden State Warriors (shorthanded, to be fair), the Philadelphia 76ers and the Minnesota Timberwolves.
The last couple of weeks of the season have been hit or miss for many years as some teams let go of the rope, but the line for when the tanking begins is creeping earlier and earlier. Before January was over this season, many teams were diving right in to the losing game.
New Orleans is the only non-tanker left
It has angered the league. It has frustrated other teams. It has disheartened fans. And in the process, it has shone an unlikely spotlight on the New Orleans Pelicans, the one bastion of winning basketball in a sea of lottery losing. The national media is even pointing it out -- and they never point out anything happening with the Pelicans!
The Pelicans are only 18-42. They are a bad team. But with Zion Williamson healthy, Dejounte Murray back in the lineup, the young players improving and James Borrego looking like a real NBA head coach, the arrow is pointing up. Slightly, perhaps, but up.
There are problems on the horizon. The team has to decide what to do with Zion. They won't have their first-round pick this season, which is likely still going to be good and could easily land in the Top 4. They have the worst owner and infrastructure in the league.
Problems? Sure. But tanking is not one of them. So the rest of the league had better underestimate them at their peril.