It is the turn to publish the NBA 2023-24 New Orleans Pelicans preview. Data, results from the previous season, a look at their squad and their future free agents, the objectives of the course, the player to follow and a prediction about the franchise.
New Orleans Pelicans
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Movements in the market: departures of Jaxson Hayes, Josh Richardson, Willy Hernangómez and Garrett Temple; arrival of Cody Zeller. Backcourt: CJ McCollum, Jose Alvarado, Dyson Daniels, Kira Lewis Jr. Frontcourt: Brandon Ingram, Zion Williamson, Herb Jones, Trey Murphy III, Larry Nance Jr., Naji Marshall, Jonas Valanciunas, Cody Zeller, E.J. Lidl.
This is how they face the season
Last year was a roller coaster in New Orleans. Driven by the optimism of the competitive 2022 playoffs and the return of Zion, the Pelicans were one of the best teams in the league during the first stretch of regulation, reaching 2023 with a 23-13 that put them at the top of the Western Conference. However, January 2 would end up being the day that Williamson played the last game of the season. Shortly before, on November 25, Brandon Ingram had also fallen into a dry dock that would force him to miss 29 games.
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Curiously, right after this injury the team had its best winning streak (7) of the entire campaign. Although the beginning was positive in general terms, there was a certain feeling of difficulty when it came to calibrating the roles of each one. Personally, I think CJ McCollum would have ended up being the glue between Ingram and Zion; and that the latter would have ended up more dedicated to the execution. The reality was different, and without Ingram the team took off as if everything fell into place.
McCollum had the best months of his career as playmaker, Zion was as efficient as ever and his numbers finally had a direct impact on the scoreboard, Valanciunas closed the offensive triangle to clean up the plays for both and the emergence of Trey Murphy III as a luxury complement finished polishing everything. Herb Jones suffered some stagnation, especially offensively, but he never stopped being one of the best outside defenders in the league. This and the versatility that the formats with Nance Jr. gave to the ‘five’ allowed them to cover the defensive deficiencies of McCollum and Zion to establish themselves as the sixth best defense of the first two months of the season.
The good news didn’t end there, as the team’s second unit also worked like a shot between October and December. Jose Alvarado, who had emerged as a tough defender, took a step forward as one of those point guards who do not need to knead the ball too much to make the team work. His leadership, combined with players like Naji Marshall and Dyson Daniels, made them the third best unit in the league, outperforming their rivals by 2.3 points per hundred possessions.
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plummet
These collective dynamics remained valid even after Zion’s departure. In January, the team continued to be competitive, but the losses piled up to squander any type of positive inertia. Ten consecutive defeats to close the second half of January threw many of the hopes generated overboard, sinking the team into that mass of Western teams that has bordered on 50% victories during practically the entire course.
The offensive collapse was total from then on (fifth worst offensive rating), showing a completely flat version that had nothing to do with the dynamism of those months of splendor. The Pelicans praised the 2 × 2 of McCollum and Valanciunas as the only pillar of their attack, which ended up wearing down even the former Blazers himself, although he knew how to maintain the numbers. Another notable loss was that of Alvarado, leaving a competitive second unit, but which was no longer a strong point as it was at the beginning.
Ingram’s return came in time to keep things going and take advantage of a final stretch in which neither team seemed to want to win, but the reality was that the southerners were not prepared for the postseason. In the play-in game against the Thunder, the Pelicans allowed 123 points to Oklahoma, collapsing in the last quarter, but the truth is that the feelings with which they entered that game could not be worse.
One more year, the Pelicans will start the season from scratch, navigating their sea of doubts every time they return to that starting box. On paper, the team is the same one that showed it could dominate the competition on both sides of the court. A squad with differential talents and plenty of rotation depth. However, there is no group that is not affected by its immediate past, and the version seen in the second half of the regular league, no matter how much it found an explanation in injuries, may end up weighing too much on the general mood of the group.
It will be time to climb that wall again that senses that Zion and Ingram cannot reach their ceiling at the same time while CJ McCollum is adding years with all that this entails for a player of his physical weakness. Even so, a new step forward from Trey Murphy III, Herb Jones and Dyson Daniels continues to give skeleton to a team in need of its main stiletto.
The player to watch
“This summer he has been in the gym more than in all his years in New Orleans”
With this sentence, the Pelicans environment announced the arrival of Zion 3.0. Or are we already on the fourth installment? The question. If in other years that work in the shadows and the small video appetizers in the form of monstrous dunks sent the hype through the roof, this time it was a bit like the story of the wolf and the sheep.
Last year Williamson already arrived in great physical condition for the season. Furthermore, the style of play imposed by Willie Green and McCollum allowed him to be measured within the games and that the efforts, although explosive (there is no other way with him) were not so constant. It is true that his breaks go beyond the typical superstar rest and that, normally, they have him out for two or three dates. But missing eight of the first 37 games is a more than acceptable figure for New Orleans.
The feeling with the prodigy is worrying because it is no longer that he is injured, it is that it seems that any pain takes much longer to heal in his body than in the average player. His rookie year is still the only one that has ended on the court. There is nothing to say about Zion in sports that has not been suggested before. Last year served to clear up the doubts (in my opinion absurd) about whether he was a player with empty numbers. There is still a long way to go to see the peak version of the player, who continues to improve in small things like stopping being a black hole in defense. But without continuity it is impossible.
The Pelicans have already shown they can be a good team without their big star. However, the project cannot continue to function in this way. Assuming the absence of who will determine its ceiling. The positive note, although this is usually not very relevant, is that the southern team starts with much less pressure than other years. Few people have them on their radar because of all the above. Hopefully this will be the campaign in which we can follow Williamson on televisions or multimedia devices and not through articles that reveal the interior details of his recoveries, the tensions with David Griffin or the end to his time in New Orleans .
NBA Preview 2023-24 New Orleans Pelicans, prediction
Elio Martínez, director of nbamaniacs, leaves a personal and subjective forecast about what he believes each franchise will do during the season in the previous NBA 2023-24.
At Zion’s expense. Again. The West is loaded with mid-level teams in which the Pelicans, if Zion is not healthy, will not stand out. Since I don’t think we’ll see a 75-game season from Williamson, my prediction is to leave them fighting for the play-in until the final day. 42 victories.
Next team: Minnesota Timberwolves.
(Cover photo by Cole Burston/Getty Images)
2023-10-04 13:35:49
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