The New Orleans Pelicans are a mess. They are 11-21 sitting 14th in the Western Conference and their best player has not played all season. It is a disaster and David Griffin is on the hot seat. The Pelicans season very well might be over but is there any way to turn it around? Will Zion Williamson play this season?
The Pelicans are not very good at basketball. New Orleans is 24th in offense and 24th in defense leading to them being 26th in net rating at -4.6. They are not good, though Brandon Ingram has had a nice statistical season, averaging 23.5 points, 6.3 rebounds, and 5.0 assists with shooting splits of .45/.36/.81. There are definitely times where he can disappear from the game but he is a great scorer and is a great building block for the future. They traded Lonzo Ball in the offseason for Garrett Temple, Tomas Satoransky, and a 2nd round pick leading to them trading a first round pick for Devonte’ Graham. I did not like it at the time, most people did not like it at the time, and it has not looked like a great move yet, though both players signed 4-year contracts so we have a lot of time to see. 2020 first round pick Kira Lewis Jr.’s season is over with a torn ACL, the 8th overall pick of the 2019 draft, Jaxson Hayes, seemingly cannot get off of the bench, and they passed on Darius Garland to trade down from the 4th pick in the 2019 draft. There have been a lot of mistakes in David Griffin’s tenure but he has also made some good moves, the Anthony Davis return was good. This team needs Zion to get healthy, and is that going to happen this season?
Zion Williamson has played in 85 games during his career, after missing most of his rookie season with a knee injury and all of this season with a foot injury. However, when he plays Williamson is dominant. In 61 games last season Zion averaged 27 points and 7 rebounds while not shooting 3’s well. He is an awesome player when he is on the court, the problem is he is rarely on the court. This is likely a lost season for New Orleans, 10 games under .500 at Christmas is usually a death sentence, this is not a good team, so why would you risk further injury to Williamson? He has already had a setback and is a shot 10th in the West and a play-in spot really worth risking your franchise player to further injury to a place where there was a setback already, with him not even playing too. I do not think so.
You watch the Pelicans and struggle to get excited, what do Jonas Valanciunas and Herb Jones do to get you excited? This roster is so bleh without (and even with) Zion. This is not a good basketball team. Adding Zion does not make them a top 6 team, probably not a top 8 team in the West. They have role players who are meh, they constantly make moves that leave people scratching their heads, and frankly, they just keep losing. 3 coaches in 3 seasons since hiring David Griffin. It is a mess, and though I don’t want to call for people’s jobs, David Griffin has not done a good job building this roster.
The Pelicans are not good. They don’t play good defense, they don’t score enough points, and they are very banged up. This is a team with a lot of future picks and can use those picks in the future to try and start winning, because that winning does not look like it is coming this season.
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