The New Orleans Pelicans closed out preseason with a 107-106 win over the Washington Wizards, and their next stop is opening night against the Indiana Pacers.
A big topic of conversation as the Pelicans gear up for their first regular season game is who Jamahl Mosley will roll with as his first starting five. While it’s safe to say Zion Williamson and Trey Murphy III will occupy two of the five starting spots with Jeremiah Fears hopefully manning the point, the center spot may not be a mystery anymore. There have been debates about which one of Derik Queen, Karlo Matkovic, or Yves Missi would get the starting nod.
All three guys had their cases: Matkovic is the spacer, DQ has the rebound numbers on his side, and Missi has the traditional big man stuff. While there is an argument for every one of these bigs to start, Missi is the player I would put my money on to hear his name called as the starter against Indy, given the way he closed out the preseason.
In the Pelicans finale, Missi had six points and seven rebounds, while shooting 3-of-5 from the field in 19 minutes of action.
Missi appears to be safe to start
I’ll be the first to tell you I’ve been disappointed with Missi’s play this preseason. After the way he looked for his national team this summer, my expectations were sky high for him in year three. He flashed ball skills and improved switchability defensively that had me super intrigued, but those expectations were clearly unrealistic. Missi looked lost defensively and struggled to find his place in Mosley’s new offensive system, particularly through the first two preseason games, and he looked like what I originally thought he was: an energy big.
That said, the way he played through parts of the third preseason game and then the finale as a whole makes me feel pretty safe saying he’ll start against the Pacers. He made minimal mistakes, played within himself, protected the rim, rebounded, scored efficiently, and obviously delivered highlight-reel plays as a lob threat and put-back machine.
Although there are concerns with the way Missi and Zion Williamson have fit into the frontcourt this preseason on both ends of the floor, the rapport the two have together holds value to me.
It’s also worth noting that Mosley has started Missi in all four preseason games, and it would be odd as a coach to do that just to roll with someone completely different on opening night. On top of that, even as someone who’s been super skeptical of Derik Queen his play with the second unit has been encouraging, and I doubt Mosley wants to disrupt that.
Although the center spot may not be the position in the starting five I’m most confident in for the Pelicans to open a new campaign, it does seem like their decision is pretty clear.
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