Pelicans have next crucial role player on their roster awaiting his opportunity

Just ahead of NBA training camp, the New Orleans Pelicans crammed in one final roster move by signing Adonis Arms, likely to an Exhibit 10 deal. On this contract, Arms will have the opportunity to show the Pelicans, and the rest of the NBA, what he can do in an attempt to earn a roster spot for the season. New Orleans waived guard Izaiah Brockington, who they had just signed days earlier, to make room for Arms, so, clearly, he has something that the team is interested in.

Arms has already led an incredible basketball journey. In high school, he was stuck on Desert Vista's JV team as a junior while future NBA big man Brandon Clarke led the varsity squad to State. Even in his senior year, he didn't start a single game and finished with an average of just 2.7 points per game.

Thanks to a few lucky breaks, Arms got an opportunity to play for the JUCO program at Mesa Community College. As a college freshman, he was reportedly just 6'1". By the time he transferred up to Division II school Northwest Nazarene, he measured in at 6'4" and put up over 20 points, five rebounds, and three assists a night for the Nighthawks in his junior year.

After Northwest Nazarene, he finally got a Division I opportunity after a red-shirt year at Winthrop University. For the Eagles, he slid back into a supplementary role but garnered enough attention to get another DI shot at a major program: Texas Tech. With the Red Raiders, he made a name for himself and landed on NBA radars. He ultimately went undrafted in 2022 but proved enough to earn a spot in the G-League.

He's spent the last two seasons splitting time between the Grand Rapids Gold and the Memphis Hustle. Last season with the Hustle, he put up 18 points, 6.4 rebounds, and 3.5 assists on 45/39/76 shooting splits, showcasing a well-rounded all-around game and a dangerous outside shooting touch. Now listed at 6'6" with a versatile skill set and NBA-level athleticism, Arms wants to continue his ascension in the basketball ranks to the big leagues. His former trainer and current Technical Director of the NBA Basketball School Portugal, Tremaine Dalton, believes that Adonis Arms not only belongs in the NBA but that he can shine in the league.

Tremaine Dalton: "Once [Adonis Arms] gets his shot, he's just gonna take off."

Along with heading the NBA Basketball School Portugal, Tremaine Dalton is also a highly decorated skills coach and trainer. He's worked directly with professional hoopers from all over the world, including NBA athletes like Killian Tillie and James Young, through his program, The Process Basketball. But Dalton hasn't limited himself to just USA hoops. On top of his work in Portugal, he's trained several high-profile international players such as Mathias Lessort, who just won MVP of the Greek League and led his Panathinaikos Athens to a title.

It's his international experience that gives Dalton an edge as a trainer, and it's also what he believes gives his clients an advantage:

"With European basketball, it's the difference between art and war. In Europe when they play basketball, it's more an art. For us, it's war; we try to destroy everybody... But if you combine the two, you teach an American player to slow down his pace, use the pick-and-roll, the pick-and-pops, the back doors, in combination with the athleticism going downhill... it makes [him] so much better."

This balance between artistry and destructiveness is what Dalton seeks to instill in his trainees, whether it's teaching aggression to a more methodical player or instilling finesse into a kill-first athlete. Dalton took that same balanced approach with Adonis Arms when the two worked on the latter's game together:

"We were really working on him being a combo because he can play the point and play the two and play the three because he's pretty athletic. We're working on the shooting, working on his ball-handling, and most important is pace with my work. Specifically, I try to teach American players how to play like European players and that's actually been to his advantage, and I believe that's why he's doing so well in the G-League."

Dalton believes that Arms's versatility, both physically and within his skill set, will make a valuable commodity for any NBA team but especially the Pelicans.

"He could play the one [for New Orleans]. I think he could play the two. I think he could come off the bench behind a Zion and give him a little bit of rest... I think he could in at multiple different positions as a good role player to begin and really learn the NBA game and pace of tempo... I think he could come in and he could do it his way."

The thing that stood out to me most when I was talking to Coach Dalton about Adonis Arms was his absolute confidence in his trainee, and, more importantly, as Dalton put it, his friend. I asked him in a few different ways what Arms needs to work on to make the leap into an NBA player, and Dalton was persistent and consistent each time:

"He just needs to continue on the journey that he's on."

"When he tells me his dreams or when he tells me what he wants to do, I just say 'yes, you're right, and this is how you can do it.'"

"I think it's just a matter of sooner or later."

"I just believe once he gets that shot, he's just gonna take off."

Coach Dalton and I also spoke a lot of opportunity; how there are more NBA-caliber players out there than we realize who just haven't been in the right place at the right time. With Arms currently on the Pelicans roster, he's definitely in the right place. Coach Dalton wholeheartedly believes that if Arms is in the right place long enough, he can break through.

"I think that as long as he keeps his head on his shoulders and stays focused towards the goal, I think it's gonna work out. A lot of people don't know Adonis is so basketball-oriented and family-oriented that he doesn't necessarily express how good he is off the court... He has a great smile, he likes to talk to people... I think a lot of people need to hear his story, and I think that's the thing that will push him over because a coach will be able to trust [his journey], staff will be to trust that, a GM will be able to trust that."

Arms may have not appeared in the Pelicans’ first preseason outing against the Magic, but there’s no doubt he’s making the most of his opportunity throughout training camp. We’ll see if it ends in a full-time NBA spot for him. According to Coach Dalton, it’s only a matter of time.