In the 2024-25 NBA season, the New Orleans Pelicans will bring many familiar faces to battle in pursuit of the championship. Six of the top ten players in minutes from last year are back: Zion Williamson, CJ McCollum, Brandon Ingram, Herb Jones, Trey Murphy III, and Jordan Hawkins. New Orleans will also have many returning role players in Jose Alvarado, Matt Ryan, and Jeremiah Robinson-Earl.
Throughout the years, there have been three traits that most title rosters have had: talent, depth, and continuity. The Boston Celtics this past season finally got theirs after stumbling over and over again in the playoffs with their star wing duo of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. It wasn't until their seventh season together that they finally reached the pinnacle alongside core players that have been around for the long haul like Al Horford, Payton Pritchard, Sam Hauser, and Luke Kornet.
The Pelicans have had the talent, and they added more by trading for Dejounte Murray. They have enough depth around their All-Star-caliber players with a strong supporting cast. This year, they'll have continuity, with many of the core pieces entering at least their third year in the bayou.
But just because an organization is trying to retool around a consistent roster doesn't mean that there still can't be notable changes within that team. New Orleans will have to adapt in a lot of ways this season: integrating Murray, working around their precarious center rotation, playing smaller and faster, etc. It's up to Vice President David Griffin and Head Coach Willie Green to find ways to tinker with this team along the margins and find ways to significantly raise their ceiling until they can get over the hump. Coach Green has a lofty goal for the Pelicans' offense next season, and the rest of the league could be in danger.
Willie Green wants the Pelicans to shoot over 40 3-pointers per game next season
Last season, New Orleans tied with the Phoenix Suns for 24th in the NBA with 32.6 3-point attempts per game. The year before that, they were 29th with just 30.1 triples a night. In 2021-22, they averaged 32.1 threes, good for 24th. Essentially, they've been one of the worst volume shooting teams in the league during Willie Green's tenure.
Apparently, coach wants to change that this season. Last year, the Pels finished fourth in 3-point percentage as a team after hitting 38.3 percent of their triples. With that level of marksmanship and a roster built around stars who do their best work in the paint, it makes perfect sense why Green would want to up their volume from outside.
Even though they were one of the most accurate teams in the league, opposing defense still regularly sagged off of the Pelicans on the perimeter to contain Zion, BI, and CJ on drives and post-ups, knowing that there was a good chance that New Orleans wouldn't make them pay.
According to the Athletic's Will Guillory, Willie Green had a big "40" on his whiteboard waiting for his Pelicans on the first day of training camp to signify how many threes he wanted them to average as a team this season. It's a lofty goal; the only team last year to crack that number was the Boston Celtics, although the Dallas Mavericks, Sacramento Kings, and Golden State Warriors were pretty close too.
It's not impossible, though. Dejounte Murray shot it from deep over seven times a game last year, which would have only put him behind CJ and Trigga Trey on the Pelicans. He matched Naji Marshall, Dyson Daniels, Jonas Valanciunas, and Larry Nance Jr.'s 3-point attempts per game combined from last season.
To hit 40 threes, the Pelicans will have to take eight more per game than they did in 2023-24. There are a lot of good candidates to take those extra shots. Zion averaged 0.3 threes last season. Herb Jones only took 3.6 despite hitting at a nearly 42 percent clip. Ingram wasn't much better with just 3.8 triple attempts a night.
New Orleans is aiming to play faster and smaller, which should only help boost those 3-point numbers. If they can hit their goal of 40 deep looks a game, it'll mean that opposing defenses have to pay their shooters more respect. The Celtics basically outshot opponents all the way to a championship. Even when they weren't hitting, defenses had to honor their range which always gave Boston great spacing for their ballhandlers and rim-runners to work with. The Cs don't have anyone who pressures the rim remotely as well as Zion does, and the Pels have just as many secondary playmakers as Boston, if not more. If the Pelicans hit this goal, it'll give them a completely revamped offense — a much more fearsome one.