The New Orleans Pelicans beat the Sacramento Kings in dominating fashion Monday night,120-94. The game featured plenty of bright spots, as rookie guard Jeremiah Fears had his best performance in a while, coming off the bench to score 20 points while adding four rebounds and three assists. Trey Murphy III had another offensive explosion, scoring 28 points and drilling five threes. But while this game showcased some positives,, it also highlighted something incredibly alarming. The Pelicans are locked into NBA purgatory with no signs of escaping.
New Orleans has a talented roster that doesn't accurately reflect its record, as shown whenever it plays teams near the bottom of the standings. I’ve said many times that the issue isn’t talent, it’s roster construction. Until the Pelicans build around their core more coherently, they will remain a team that is too good to lose to bad teams, but too bad to beat good ones.
Pelicans are stuck in NBA purgatory
The Pelicans, with their win over the Kings on Monday, are 15-40 this season. Of those 15 wins, three of them are against current playoff teams in the Western Conference. The other 12 are all against fellow bottom feeders. That shouldn’t encourage a front office. It should be a clear sign that this core does not work, unless the goal is not to build a future title contender, but to remain a perennial bottom-tier team.
At this year's trade deadline, the Pelicans made one trade, sending Jose Alvarado to New York for a pair of seconds and an extra roster spot. Reports suggest the front office is fully committed to this group and thinks they just need the right injury luck, coaching staff, and player development to prove they are a playoff team. Hence why they made just one move at the deadline.
This approach continues to show that the Pelicans have no plans to escape the NBA’s no-man’s-land and appear comfortable remaining one of the league’s laughingstocks. Monday’s game went viral on social media for being a matchup for the 14th seed, and if the Pelicans want to avoid becoming the butt end of those trends, real change is needed.
I understand the Pelicans don't own their own first-round pick in this upcoming draft class, so some front offices may feel obliged to stand pat and avoid accepting that trading their pick was a mistake. But when a team is headed toward a second straight bottom-four finish in the league, and the blowout wins they have are against the Sacramento Kings, who entered Monday on a 12-game losing streak, what is the point?
The Pelicans have the fourth-worst defensive rating this season, make the fourth fewest three-pointers per game, give up the second-most offensive rebounds per game, and allow the sixth-most total rebounds per game. A team that is that bad in these many categories over the course of an offseason isn't just going to become a playoff team.