RealGM

New Orleans Pelicans

Projected lineup
------------------------

PG - Jrue Holiday, Russ Smith, Jimmer Fredette
SG - Eric Gordon, Austin Rivers
SF - Tyreke Evans, Luke Babbitt, Darius Miller
PF - Anthony Davis, Ryan Anderson, Patric Young
C - Omer Asik, Alexis Ajinca, Jeff Withey

Trading Block: I don't see much going down on the trade front. They've all ready made a splash by trading a future 1st for Asik allowing Davis to be a full time PF. I think they are done unless they can find a way to shore up their bench somehow.

Position Battle: I don't see any. What you see is what you get. Maybe Jimmer could challenge Russ Smith?

Mystery Man: Dat bench yo. I just don't know if they are going to get much production out of that bench outside of Anderson. And it's not like guys on this team don't miss games now and then. So the bench will be relied upon. For New Orleans to take the next step, up to being considered a playoff squad they've got to find a way to solidify that bench. And you don't want to wait too long or Anthony Davis is going to realize that he's stuck on a team that's never going to make any noise, much like Kevin Love did up in Minny. And there is no guarantee that there will be a Clevelandesque situation around to trade with at that point.

Floppymusings: Asik is there. Holiday is healthy. Anderson is healthy, maybe. Davis is a total stud and will be even moreso this year. So they'll be a lot better, right? Well how much is a lot? The west is wicked tough, and the Pelicans still have a very bad wing rotation. A lot better ends up being about 4 more wins. When the Pelicans fix their wing situation they will be a dangerous team.

Jazzfanramblings: I think New Orleans has an exciting up and coming team. For some reason I just take a liking to them. But, does anyone in New Orleans? I'm not sure anyone has told the folks there that they have a NBA team yet. I guess they don't have the worst fans in the league. Bucks, 76ers, Hawks, Timberwolves and Pistons all had smaller crowds in their arenas. So, maybe I'm over-reacting.

But, I asked folks from every team on RealGM's team forums to give me a run down of their squad. Tell me about their projected lineups and storylines and such. Not a single person in the New Orleans forum bothered to reply. In fact, there are 25 threads on the first page of their forum, if you go down to the 25th thread posted in you have to go back to February 4th in time. By way of comparison if you look at the 25th thread posted in on the Toronto forum you only have to go back to yesterday (Aug 17). Maybe it's just RealGM that they haven't been told about.

I have Russ Smith listed as the backup PG. I don't know who Russ Smith is. I've never even heard of Russ Smith. I don't recall Jeff Withey or Patric Young either, but, as third stringers it's not terribly uncommon for me to have not heard of them. I think I have heard of Darius Miller, but, then Darius Miller is just a good NBA name. I could be confusing him with some other Darius with a common last name. My point is that bench stinks. At least I think it does. I guess they do have Ryan Anderson and if he comes back healthy and playing like he did before neck surgery that helps their bench quite a bit. Lets just say Ryan Anderson has been through a lot. I wish him the best, and I hope he comes back the best he's ever been, but, it's gotta be tough to walk the road he's been down and return unscathed.

I just don't see the playoffs for this squad unless they have a run of health like Portland did last season and also find a gem or two somewhere to bolster that bench.

Projected record - 38/44

I think the Pelicans also have Omri Casspi and John Salmons on the roster (not that those two move the needle). The Western Conference is so strange. The Pelicans should be over .500 this season. Their starting line-up is above average at just about every position except PF where they are exceptional.

My biggest problem with this 36-46 prediction is that they were 34-48 (33-49 expected) last season in an injury plagued year. Going from Jrue Holiday to Brian Roberts/Austin Rivers was a major hit. Losing Ryan Anderson was also a devastating blow to the team. Then when you factor in the improvement going from Jason Smith to Omer Asik, it would appear they are primed to be a .500 squad at least.

I would agree that their bench isn't as stout as one might like but I don't think it's horrible. I'm most worried about coaching with the Pelicans. Is Monty Williams a good coach? From what I've seen I don't really like his philosophy. I see the Pelicans running a lot of plays that end in decent midrange looks but nothing great. I also think he uses Davis a bit too aggressively defensively instead of allowing him to contain and contest at the rim. Losing Morrow doesn't do much to help the spacing issues but they should be poised to be a top ten defense with Asik/Davis/Holiday. It's unfortunate that teams like the Pelicans and Nuggets are in the West because they would be playoff teams in the East if healthy.

I think NO should experiment with having a simply Evans - holiday backcourt

With Evans being the main ball-handler and holiday being a 3 and d type player, Evans would guard 2's and holiday the 1's

Evans had a strong rookie season as the main ball handler and the kings ruined that by trying to turn him into a spot up shooter

When giving the reigns of the offense for the last 20-30 games he put up 22-5-6 on 51 percent shooting around 57 TS

A Davis - Evans pick and roll would be very tough to stop


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I would flip that win loss prediction I think 46-36 is more likely than having a losing record, unless they are hit with major injuries again but can't really predict those.

Love their rotation of bigs, hate the guard and small forward depth.

Patric Young was one of my favorite college ballers of the last couple years. I hope he gets the opportunity to have a productive career.

I could also see their win/loss number being flipped by year's end. It all depends on health and how everyone gels, but this team looks solid on paper.

General Board seems to be gushing over Anthony Davis and the Pelicans. I don't really know how they will fare this season as the West is still ultra competitive and the Pelicans do play in a really difficult division as well. We'll see.

A couple notes (granted, also as an outsider to NO).

I don't see adding Asik as moving Davis to PF full-time. I see a 3-big rotation with Anderson. Most teams start big and finish small, I'd expect NO to do the same, starting Davis/Asik and finishing with Anderson/Davis (and also running some Anderson/Asik as Davis won't play 48 mpg).

Russ Smith was the star of the 2013 NCAA title team. Russdiculous was a thing. He may not be that good at the NBA level but he's not obscure.

Also, as noted they won 34 games with some pretty bad injury issues last year. 36 wins looks way low.

I think they'll make the playoffs personally. Injuries wrecked them and I think AD is going to have a huge year, and they have several veterans who are really good if they aren't injured.

fyi, the win value was supposed to be 38 wins. it's been updated.

jazzfan1971 wrote:New Orleans Pelicans

Projected lineup
------------------------

PG - Jrue Holiday, Russ Smith, Jimmer Fredette
SG - Eric Gordon, Austin Rivers
SF - Tyreke Evans, Luke Babbitt, Darius Miller
PF - Anthony Davis, Ryan Anderson, Patric Young
C - Omer Asik, Alexis Ajinca, Jeff Withey

Trading Block: I don't see much going down on the trade front. They've all ready made a splash by trading a future 1st for Asik allowing Davis to be a full time PF. I think they are done unless they can find a way to shore up their bench somehow.

Jazzfanramblings:

I have Russ Smith listed as the backup PG. I don't know who Russ Smith is. I've never even heard of Russ Smith. I don't recall Jeff Withey or Patric Young either...

Really? You're doing a basketball preview and you have no idea of Russ Smith or Patrick Young.

Absolutely no idea. Russ Smith sounds like the guy that rotates my tires.

(I don't follow college ball in the least)

jazzfan1971 wrote:Absolutely no idea. Russ Smith sounds like the guy that rotates my tires.

(I don't follow college ball in the least)

This does explain a lot about where you are coming from. Having no clue what the rookie and second year players are capable of would put you at a distinct disadvantage in analyzing the team.

jazzfan1971 wrote:
I've never even heard of Russ Smith. I don't recall Jeff Withey or Patric Young either, but, as third stringers it's not terribly uncommon for me to have not heard of them.

Projected record - 38/44

Jeff's career highlight

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otEGbBsxMyM[/youtube]

I think the Pelicans are on a similar path as the Blazers are. The Blazers were a team that had some solid starters but just had an awful bench. They were built around a star PF (Aldridge -> Davis), with developing players like Holliday, Evans, etc. Oddly enough a huge move that helped bring the Blazers to the next level was when the Pelicans traded Robin Lopez to them which allowed Aldridge to play almost strictly at PF, it gave them size. They also added depth in the form of Mo Williams, Dorell Wright, and Thomas Robinson and then the development of Freeland, McCollum, and Leonard.

I think the Pelicans have a 6moy candidate in Anderson but after that, they have a bunch of "meh!" off the bench.

The biggest issue with them is health, Holiday, Gordon, Evans, Anderson, Davis, and even Asik all have a history of missing games. Aminu and Morrow were there iron men last year and they are both gone. If they stay healthy, they could sneak into the playoffs and even be a darkhorse, but it really all depends on how many games they can get out of there 6 best players because after that, they dont have much other then guys to eat minutes.

Bold prediction: I think the Pelicans win the 8th seed.

jdm3 wrote:This does explain a lot about where you are coming from. Having no clue what the rookie [...] players are capable of would put you at a distinct disadvantage in analyzing the team.

You would be surprised at how little that actually matters. I editted out the second year part because it doesn't apply. Russ Smith is a rookie.

Man looking at the roster I didn't realize their bench was that bad. If I were them I'd push Gordon to 6th man and have Salmons start alongside Evans. As it stands Anderson is their only good bench player and the rest are just journeymen or young guys with low potential.

If a guy makes much of a ripple in the league I'll notice him. Say a Nate Wolters level ripple. Anything below that probably the guy will go unnoticed by me.

And as an aside, I didn't even know who Gordon Hayward was the day we drafted him. I was like, 'who?' I was prepared for a Ed Davis or Paul George based on the browsing I had done on draft express, but, never had Gordon cross my field of view. I was not impressed with the pick. Looking back, he's at least been better than the guy I wanted (Davis).