Scoring titles are hollow without the wins to show for it, Jayson Tatum
A season that began on fire and with the Pelicans the talk of the CSL as a revitalized project.
And then came up the mid-season swoon.
The daring trade for Immanuel Quickley to try and reverse course...
...And 41-41, an overall +3 wins, before losing to the Dallas Mavericks in the #8 seed play-in game.
Worse, the Orlando Magic righted their ship, robbing the Pelicans of another lottery pick, while their own transformed into pick 12 or 13, something like that, conveying to the Miami Heat. And that's without the grim fact that 2037 is sitting with the Los Angeles Lakers as part of that Quickley deal, along with SPJ and CHJ. As one front office official noted, "That trade blew up as spectacularly as one could, and it's probably not done blowing up in our faces yet."
Doc Rivers is likely to be fired in order to save the GM's job, because a roster with this stellar a talent shouldn't be a 9 seed. Not even in the dogfight of the Southwest division, where all five teams finished .500 or better and made the playoffs except New Orleans.
Was there anything good about the season other than Jayson Tatum's offensive fireworks and MVP candidacy that died with the team's freefall down the standings?
1. Savion Flagg was a surprise find in the Quickley deal.
The starting lineup of Quickley/Tatum/OMP/Flagg/JJJ was +15.8 Net Rating - easily the best lineup over 200 minutes of logged court time. His 59.8% TS and 58.3% EFG were both tops on the team. In a year that saw New Orleans repeatedly struggle with shooting, he was the sippy juice the thirsty, thirsty team needed. There's a possibility a younger, more enterprising head coach might opt to start next season with that lineup if everyone returns and use Poku as a matchup chess piece beyond Rivers' (mostly disastrous) experiments with him as a backup PG.
And that's about all we could find. Quickley's shooting percentages tanked after the trade, which puts a damper on the improved Net Rating, Cam Whitmore had a typical rookie season of struggle, the bench continued to look completely lost, and it was just a season of awfulness.
Holes To Address
1. Find JJJ's heir apparent - likely in the draft.
As yeoman as New Orleans has been in finding D-League players who are serviceable centers the last few seasons, the Pelicans need to commit to locating a true backup center who can be groomed into JJJ's place like they're doing with the Tatum to Whitmore pipeline. The collection of minor league pickups and the spare veteran parts are feel-good stories, but whenever Jackson went down, so did the team's hopes of winning.
2. Rebuild the shooting.
When New Orleans parted ways with SPJ and CHJ, they lost a lot of shooting that Flagg could only partially recover. The Pelicans ranked in the bottom third of the league in overall FG% and 3 point %, and while those numbers will rise as Whitmore develops, more is needed. Hoping IQ can rebound isn't going to be enough. Again, a high percentage big man will help immensely - no one cracked the 50% from the floor mark for the year.
3. Find ball-thieves.
And no, Jordan Caroline isn't an answer. He'll have his TO declined and be let go to free agency, which is also where the team will likely hunt for a steals specialist on a veteran minsal deal. The Pelicans were 29th in steals this season, a metric only partially explainable by their CSL-slowest pace. Only OMP broke a steal per game at 1.1, and a more aggressive turnover generator in the backcourt would generate the vital possessions needed for more scoring opportunities.
Trade Likelihood
Quite low. In fact, the two most exciting things this offseason will probably be whoever replaces Rivers, and whoever the newest draftee is. And that'll probably be it. Next year's Pelicans will look a lot like this year's.
2020, 2023, 2027, 2035
