NLL Insider - Team by Team: New Orleans Pelicansby Rootsey, updated on Saturday, October 08 2016, 02:35 pm EST 2015-16 Finish: 21-61 Season Highlight: The start of the
season before a game was played was the clear highlight for the Pels.
They had unloaded Pekovic, Ariza, Spencer Hawes, for Al Jefferson and
Jeremy Lamb. They had the number 3 draft pick, Jahlil Okafor. Chandler
Parsons and Brandon Knight were ready for the season. Cody Zeller was
ready for a break out year. Kyle Korver was coming off a scorching hot
shooting season. They were coming into the season off the back of a
playoff appearance the year before. Everything was rosy, what could go
wrong for this team. They had shooting and inside scoring, a little
hustle, a creator at the point, and a bit of upside to keep everyone interested. Season Lowlight: Where to start? 45 - 54
- 70 - 57 is probably a good indicator of one of the issues that the
Pels ran into last season. These are the total games played by 4 key
cogs in the New Orleans system. Brandon Knight, Jahlil Okafor, Chandler
Parsons, Norris Cole in that order. With the scoring PG Knight gone and
then key rookie Okafor going down, you couldn't blame Parsons for
resting a few games. The bad news is none of these players, save Okafor,
are very resilient over the course of the careers, so it may be
another season in the injury ward for the Pels. Best Trade: The
trade of the corpse of Pek, Hawes, and Ariza for Al Jeff and J Lamb
seemed like the best trade. New Orleans also sent their first rounder
for 16 and received Indiana's 2016 1st and Bostons 2016 2nd. Giving
up their first in hindsight looks bad, but in the moment they would
have expected to be in a similar position to where the Indiana picked
ended up landing. J Lamb had a mini breakout year and Al Jeff did Al
Jeff things. Worst Trade: Tarik Black for 3 GMs? Part
of the mega-trade Utah put together to start last season, I'm not sure
what other pieces came together after or before this trade for it to
make sense. Other Notable Trades: Jon Leuer for Josh McRoberts - nice pick up by New Orleans Darren
Collison & James McAdoo for Jeremy Lamb and Shane Larkin - gets the
better overall player, unfortunately that player has just been found
guilty of domestic violence Timofey Mozgov, Markieff Morris, and
Norris Cole for Kyle Korver and Al Jeff - Morris is still on a cheap
deal and may make this trade a win for New Orleans, time will tell. Anthony Morrow for Jon Leuer and Lucas Nogueira - Morrow replaces shooting that the team lost when trading Korver. Jared Sullinger for Trey Burke - If Sully is retained this will be a good move. If. Marco
Belinelli and TJ Warren for Cody Zeller and Anthony Morrow - TJ Warren
looked to be breaking out when this trade was made. Where does he sit on
an NBA depth chart now compared to Zeller? Maybe a Push, Maybe a lose. Mozgov
and two 2nds for Nemanja Bjelica and a 1st - This might be the
winningest trade now that I get to it. Mozgov expires and resigns for a
mint, Bjelica locked up and they get a 1st rounder aswell. Best Trade Mark two: Mozgov
for a 1st? Sure there is more to the deal, and Mozgov isn't bad, but he
was expiring and not getting much NBA time when the trade went down.
For a season that at this stage had turned sour and Blackmajestic
looking to the future this ended up being a trade that netted him a mid
first rounder. Now the value of the pick depends on how much you like
Timothy Luwawu-Cabarrot but still he's a player that will get some run
this season and will be under a nice cheap contract. Best FA Signing: The
99 point man - Chandler Parsons. He may have been limited to 70 games,
but during those he was averaging 17.4ppg, 4.7 rpg, and even 1 bpg. A
steady hand on the scoring a least kept the Pels in games a lot of the
season. Now that he is a free agent again, he will be a hard man to
retain. Worst FA Signing: Aaron Harrison - Signed in
Free Agency - Didn't play a minute - Released in January. Not horrible,
as you may as well take a free flyer on young guys, but he did clog up a
roster spot for half the season. Star: Jahlil Okafor He
was outscored by Chandler Parsons on the team, but Okafor still put up
14.2 points a night and brought down 9.6 boards. He was fairly efficient
too shooting 50% and even 40% from 3, on very limited shots. The only
thing to let him down was his injury and suspensions. We can expect
growing pains from young players, hopefully for BM, Okafor has his head
screwed on right for this season. Surprise: How
poorly they went considering the line up they had. While the team to
start the season may not have been championship caliber, they were
definitely playoff caliber in the West. No one would have predicted the
Warriors led by Roy Hibbert and Harry Barnes to have been 4 games ahead
of the Pels at the end of the season, but here we are. Maybe it was 2k14
engine that didn't favour a big man - inside game line up that was
being pushed out, but I don't think that's going to get any better in
2k16 engine. Goat: Coaching Staff and Physios While
the players were on the court they individually seemed to perform as
well as would be expected and better than they had in previous years or
on different teams in the one season. This clearly didn't add up to many
wins for the club though. The coaching staff needs to spend a few extra
hours in the video room in preseason to make sure they have a strong
plan moving forward to get some W's. The Physio's couldn't keep the
team on the floor. Or if they were on the floor it was because they were
writhing in pain rather than playing a game. In this league its luck
and timing of a rest night that can cause a few games to be missed. The
physios in NBA land need to keep lines of communication open with GM BM
to make sure players are available for selection. Draft Report Card: Rated
C+ by those more in the know of the draft than I. As Summer League and
Preseason NBA has rolled on we can see that each of the picks has some
value, except for #15 – Furkan Korkmaz young and full of
potential he will stay in Turkey another year. With plans to come over
next year we will have to wait and see whether such a high pick was
worth it. #17 – Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot has shown some flashes
in the Preseason and may get his fair amount of game time in the league.
A solid pick for his draft position. #39 – AJ Hammons will see
some game time too throughout the season, with his NBA spot stuck
behind often injured Andrew Bogut, this guy may get enough run to get
some improved ratings early on in the season. #40 – Cheick
Diallo had a solid summer league, but will probably spend time in the D
League unless an injury gives him an opportunity. Considering
the players available a B rating is earned. There is potential there,
but we have to wait at least a year to see if Furkan is not just another
Frederic Weis. Looking to the Future: This teams
future depends a lot on the return of Sullinger and Parsons. Both have
an F loyalty, so it might be a matter of choosing the favourite son for
GM Blackmajestic. If Parsons is gone, there is a sizeable hole at
shooting guard unless they run a too small guard rotation of Collison,
Cole, and Knight, once Collison is available. If Sully moves on, BM
needs to go fill that hole with an indentical player type. The front
court and small forward positions look to be satisfactory and have some
depth in place, but if and when injuries hit, the depth is only so deep.
Maybe they let Parsons walk and hope to get him back in free agency,
they have the cap space to make that work. I think they are a few
shooters and a slashing guard away from making a whole team. They need
to win now as they don't hold any picks until 2018, so blackmajestic
needs some black magic to drive this team to be a contender. Upcoming Free Agents: Jared Sullinger – A player that suits the current line up well. Rebounds and can stretch the floor. Good player to keep around. Chandler Parsons – Deep scorer and creator for the team. If he's gone the team will need to make some significant changes Norris Cole – PG nominated player. Serviceable. Cheap. Needs to improve 3 point shooting. Nazr Mohammed – He is still a thing? James McAdoo (restricted) – A friend to Tate Frazier producer of The Ringer Podcasts. That's about all I know about him. |
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