The New Orleans Pelicans are Much Better Than you Think
The New Orleans Pelicans last year put on an absolute disaster class of a season. They were an absolute train wreck last year, okay? Like they were terrible and they had a very disappointing season cuz actually going into the year they made the Deontay Murray trade. They were looking good. They had a good season the year before. There’s a lot of hype around the team, a lot of optimism. Well, that was quickly quickly shot in the head as they would then go on to finish with one of the worst records in franchise history at 21 and 61, which was literally tied for the second worst they’ve ever had as a team. So, that is that’s quite the the accomplishment there to go from people being very hyped about a season to winning 21 games. That’s quite the difference of expectations from reality. Okay, so what went wrong? The main thing was that they were one of the most injured teams in the entire NBA last year. They missed the third most total games due to injuries out of any team. And they missed the most minutes by players due to injury in the NBA as well last year. So, they were just absolutely riddled with injuries. The injury bug didn’t just bite them, it ate them, okay? Like, it destroyed their entire season. And as a result of this season from hell that the Pelicans had to go through, they led them to firing their GM, David Griffin, hiring a new one in Joe Dummars, and even their head coach, Willie Green, who has really been fined since he’s been on the team. Even he got put on the hot seat cuz the year was so bad. There were rumors that they might want to trade Zion. Like, they were thinking about ending it all. Okay, just blowing it all up, starting from scratch. Now, it looks like they’re not going nuclear yet. They aren’t hitting the big red button just yet, but it does look like they are at least going to try to pivot and refocus their team. They traded CJ, got Jordan Pool, they had a they drafted three young guys that should contribute, and they should have a few reasons to be optimistic. Now, do I think this team is going to be winning the NBA championship this year? No. But I do think there is a lot of reasons for optimism on this team. And I think they have a pretty underrated roster as well with the caveat that is when they are healthy, which is a big if for the Pelicans. But but when they are healthy, this team has a lot of talent and enough talent to be a playoff team and be a very hard out when the playoffs do come around. So I want to kind of break down their roster and give all my reasons why I think this team could be much better than a lot of people are probably expecting. So, let’s start from the top of the roster and we’re going to be starting with my boy Big Z. Zion himself, Z Diddy. Okay, not Z Diddy. That’s a ter awful choice of nickname actually for the offseason Zion has had some of the Okay, scratch that. Zion, we’re going to start with him. When he is healthy, he plays at an allNBA first team level. He’s one of the best players in the league. He’s one of the best finishers around the rim we have ever seen. The touch he has is unreal. And then even last year defensively, he made strides as well. So Azion as a player when he is healthy is unbelievable. One of the best players in the league. Like if he was fully healthy on a great team, you you wouldn’t even be surprised if you saw him in the MVP conversation. Like he’s that level of player. His obvious issue has just been due to injuries. Now a lot of people try to scapegoat it and say he only gets injured because he’s out of shape, which was true in the beginning of his career. He was not in the best shape. He wasn’t fully mature. But for the past few seasons, he has came in in an amazing shape into the training camp. Like it’s been very well documented that he has been in amazing shape pretty much for the past three years. And yes, one season worked out where he played 70 games, but even in that season he would go down with a season ending injury in the playin tournament against the Lakers. So even when he was in great shape, he still got injured. Like last year he was in amazing shape and still missed the vast majority of last season. So Zion, although amazing player, just has to figure out a way to stay on the [ __ ] court because he has not been able to do that. But when he has, he has been one of the best players in the league. So it’s all going to start with Zion. If Zion is healthy and can give you 50 plus games, the Pelicans can do something with that. But if he’s only going to play 20 games, it is very hard and very difficult for a team that is so reliant on Zion to be any good because yes, they have a lot of talent around him, but they don’t have any one like number one options anymore when Zion’s out, especially with Brandon Ingram being off the team now. They don’t have anyone like that. That’s just an absolute dog and can carry an offense. So Zion being healthy is imperative for this team to be good this season. And now moving on from even Zion, let’s just dive into the rest of the roster. And I’m going to let Antonio Daniels introduce the next player I want to talk about. This is Herbert Keshan Jones. That’s right. Mr. Not on Herb himself is who we’re going to be talking about. Now, Herb Jones is an elite defensive player. Like one of the best defensive players in the league. He can guard anyone on the perimeter. And on top of that, he I shot like 37% from three the last year that he is actually healthy in. So yeah, but even last year, Herb, who is usually very reliant and very healthy, even he missed a lot of games last year. So not having him was a huge blow to this team. And her being healthy is going to be huge cuz he is legitimately one of the best 3 and D players in the entire NBA, hands down. Like last time he was fully healthy, he made an alldefensive team. He is that good and that high of a level of player. And then even moving on to Trey Murphy. Trey is a borderline star level player. Now, once again, another guy who has had health issues, but he is a dead eyee three-point shooter. He has elite athleticism. His ball handle has improved leaps and bounds since joining the NBA. His defense has improved a ton. He’s gotten stronger. He has just allound improved his game. He could even create for himself off the dribble now, which was something he couldn’t even sniff doing in his rookie season. So, his improvement has been amazing. And there’s really no indication that he’s going to slow down anytime soon in this improvement. So, there’s a very real world where Trey Murphy can develop into a legit all-star level player for them and be that second option or third option on this team that they do need cuz Trey Murphy is probably the highest upside player on this entire team. And then next, I want to talk about Deonte Murray. Now, Deonte Murray is going to miss the beginning of the season because he tore his Achilles last year, but if he’s going to play for them, he is still an all-star level guard. He is a great two-way level player. He’s an amazing defender. Him and Herb Jones had people in hell for like the three games they played together. Like they were a really good defensive duo. The problem is Jonte Torres Achilles and Herb Jones was hurt all year. So they didn’t really play together at all. So you can never really see how it worked together in a big sample size. But they in theory should work very very well together. And if you look at the starting lineup on this Pelicans team as a whole, they’re very lengthy and very long. Like fully healthy. You’d have a team of like Jonte Murray, Trey Murphy, Herb Jones, Zion, and Eves Missy or Cavon Looney. That is a very lengthy, very athletic defensive team that’s going to be able to score on you and is going to provide matchup nightmare situations for certain other defenses trying to guard them while them also being able to lock you up on the defensive side of the ball. Cuz even Zion isn’t the traffic cone he was in the beginning of his career and even he I think averaged like one and a half steals per game last year. Like even defensively, he made improvements. So, I do think this team fully healthy starting lineup wise, defensively is insane. And then you add the fact that Jonte Murray offensively can give you 20 points tonight while also being a good facilitator. He is the ideal point guard for this team. He just has to get healthy and get back on the court as well. And now moving on to their newest addition in Jordan Pool. Then they traded for him with CJ Mcome. And now the Jordan Pool outside of having the best by far celebration in the league in my opinion, he fits this team if they use him correctly. I think Jordan P should be this team’s six-man when they are fully healthy. Now, yes, if Dejonte’s out, he should definitely start for them because he’s their most talented guard on the roster after him. But I do think Jordan P when Dejonte Murray comes back should come off the bench because he is a guy that can score at will on the offensive side of the ball and he could be a great spark plug for them off their bench. He can kind of play the role that like D’Angel Russell is going to play in Dallas this year. I think that Jonte is gonna be able to play I mean Jordan P could play that for the Pelicans and I think he would fit it very well. I think that’s his ideal role and I don’t think P is good enough to be your second option on a super high level team. But I do think he’s good enough to be a six-man and one of the best sixman in the entire league if he would embrace that role. So hopefully fully healthy. That’s the role they put him in and they don’t try to bench Herb or Trey, which I think would be a gigantic mistake. And I also don’t think that Jonte Murray off the bench would make any sense. So, I think Jordan P off their bench is the ideal fit for him in this team. And I think he would fit that role almost ideally when Dejonte Murray comes back. And then I want to go to their big man rotation. And the reason I’m not going to talk about one or the other is cuz I really don’t know who’s going to start cuz he missy like showed potential, but his type of player, it’s not like he has star potential. Like he pretty much is what he is. like he’s so awful at anything offensive that’s not dunking that like he’s just probably not going to develop that side of his game almost ever. He’s probably going to be mainly a lob dunk threat for his whole career while also being able to block shots and he’s kind of limited on his perimeter defense. But it’s not like Kevon Looney is much better. Like Kevon Looney is just basically the little bit less athletic veteran version of Missy. Like I do think he’s a little bit better offensively but he’s also worse defensively and not as athletic. You can start either one and you can make arguments for either one, but they do they are both solid to okay players. Like they’re not going to win you games most likely, but they’re probably not going to lose you a lot of games either. So their big man rotation is definitely better than what it was last year when they were starting Daniel Ty at the center position. So they’re in a much better situation than they were even last year. And I think it could still definitely improve and I think they could benefit a lot from having a floor spacer on their center rotation. Yes, they have Hunter Dickinson, but he’s not going to play most likely. And if he is, that means they’re probably very injured once again, which is not a good sign. So, these are going to be their two main centers. And although I don’t think it’s an ideal situation paired with Zion, I think they’re okay enough to at least be serviceable big men. And they should at least work out fairly well for this season. And then even diving a little bit farther into their bench, they still have guys like José Alvarado who’s one of the most higheffort hustle defensive guys. He can also score the ball. He can get hot. Like, he’s going to win you some games just due to how he plays. is like he’s Joseé Alvarado is one of the best role Lynch players you can ask for just because of how he plays. Jordan Hawkins is a dead eyee three-point shooter. He has a lot of scoring potential and he still has a lot of room to grow going forward and maybe this will be his breakout year because he’s still a pretty young player as well. Carlo Makovich had a very solid season for them last year. He got a lot of extra minutes due to how injured they were and then they were kind of tanking towards the end. And I think Carlo is going to be a legit scheme fit for this team and a legit player for them. I think he is going to be a very solid backup power forward behind Zion because I do think he’s going to be the backup power forward before Derrick Queen. Not just cuz Queen is injured, but I think Carlo right now is just the better player as well. And I just think overall he fits the team better because he can spread the floor and he’s more offensively talented. And I just think overall Carlo Makovich is a really good backup power forward for this team. He reminds me a little bit of Larry Nance who this team had a few years ago. And I think Carlo is going to fill that role very well for them this season. And then even some of the rookies like Jeremiah Fears I thought at the time when they picked him was the best player left available especially in the guard position. So I have no problem with the Jeremiah Fears pick. I think he’s a good guy, a sizable upside. I think over long term he’s going to be very good and I think longterm he’s going to replace a Jonte Murray. Now he may have a limited impact the year one just cuz it’s going to be hard for him to break that rotation of pull Murray, Jose, and Hawkins. It’s going to be hard to break into that consistently cuz not even Jose or Hawkins get consistent minutes. So now add pulled that and I just think they’re going to he’s going to struggle to break into that especially year one. But I think if they move on from Jonte Murray, we could see Jeremiah Fierce kind of take his men’s and his um role. So I think he is long-term going to have a good impact for this team. Derek Queen, I don’t think it’s going to play much. I don’t think he’ll have much of an impact. I think Carlo’s better than him right now. At best, he’s a backup power forward for this team. I don’t think he’s going to have a crazy impact. And then even Peavey, can’t imagine he plays too much. Although I do like him. It’s just they already have guys like Sadique Bay. They have guys like Trey and Herb. Like Wing is not a problem for this team. So it’d be very hard to see him play either. So I don’t think the rookies are going to have huge impacts on this team, but I do think they’re good enough to have long-term impacts on this team. So even that is a kind of reason to be optimistic for the long-term future of this Pelicans team. So although I don’t think that the Pelicans are going to be a super duper elite team this year, and I don’t think they’re going to be winning the championship, I think they have things to build on. I think their starting lineup if they’re fully healthy is going to be insane. Like defensively and offensively, they work together very well. I I really like that. And then Jordan Po are sixman. I really love that. So your first six guys, I think is extremely solid when DeJonte Murray comes back. I think they’re going to be that’s going to be a really really nice six-man rotation. And in the playoffs, that’s what you most importantly need. You need six real guys because your starters are going to play a lot of the minutes and then your sixman’s going to play a lot of the minutes and everybody else will get spot minutes here and there, but that’s kind of your most important spot. So, I think they have that found out and I think they can build from there. They can get better. They can develop their young guys. They can make trades to get even better in certain spots. And I think overall, although the Pelicans had an awful season last year, I think there’s a lot of reasons to be optimistic about this roster. And even in an unbelievably stacked Western Conference this year, I wouldn’t be shocked at all if they end up being a top six seed, top five seed, if they can get hot and win games, and if Zion can remain relatively healthy throughout the entire season. But unfortunately guys, that’s the combo. Do you agree with me? Do you think the Pelicans could bounce back? How much better do you think they could be? Or do you think they’re going to be terrible? Are your thoughts in the comment section below? Hit the like, point like button, subscribe button to me. And I hope you have a bless cuz I had a bless so you need have a blessed day. All glory to God. See you in the next video. Goodbye. Boo.
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