Fresh off a solid Summer League outing, Oso Ighodaro turned heads at the Pelicans' training camp
At first glance, 8.6 points, 5.2 rebounds, and 1.4 blocks in the Summer League doesn't look that impressive. Until you examine the 63.6% shooting from the floor, the +6.2 ON that paired well with Cam Whitmore's +8.6 ON to suggest that the Pelicans' lone rookie, Oso Ighodaro might indeed be better than expected. And he went on to prove that in training camp, showing off sterling improvements in shooting, scoring, passing, rebounding, solid all-around improvements at all levels of defense, and notable uptick in basketball intelligence.
In doing so, the 7', 235 big man might well have just completely upended Khem Birch's initial thinking of how the season was going to play out. He might well have earned the starting center spot, which if he does in preseason, will scramble everything we thought we knew about New Orleans after a rather quiet offseason.
Other players to report on:
Evans Ganapamo
Played out the string of his 2nd rounder contract and inked with New Orleans to be a backup PG after J.D. Davison's departure for the Los Angeles Lakers. At 6'7, 205, he has the multiposition body type New Orleans loves, and his thieving ability will get him a look as Isiah Quickley's backup if he can hit a 3 pointer above the rim, which Poku can't.
Mychal Mulder
The handling improvements were needed, but even so, he's going to find minutes hard to come by when everyone's healthy. Short for a small forward, he'll try and get backup SF minutes in a three-guard look. The scoring, 3 point shooting, and some stealing ability is intriguing, but it's a quite crowded wings position.
Cam Whitmore
A wide spread of little improvements everywhere has last year's #1 pick with the second-best camp and he had an excellent Summer League showing. If he can get his shooting accuracy up, he might indeed up a diet Jayson Tatum with better ball-stealing ability. It'll be another year of apprenticeship as Tatum's backup, absorbing what he can before potentially taking over in Year 3.
Olivier Maxence-Prosper
Unremarkable camp, and it's looking like he's pretty close to a finished product in Year 4. But that finished product is a front office favorite and a true hybrid forward that a lot of teams would love to acquire because he maximizes every ounce of his talent and fits in any system.
Oscar da Silva
No one cares. Failed to take advantage of his PT opportunity and he's here as salary filler in a trade.
Savion Flagg
Last year's breakout hybrid forward barely improved, which puts a dent in the idea of the IQ/Tatum/OMP/Flagg/JJJ lineup that was the Pelicans' best in 200+ minutes last season and was the projected starting five before Ighodaro's breakout summer.
Possibility #1
IQ/Tatum/Poku/JJJ/Ighodaro
This is the hot new flavor idea making the rounds of the front office. On paper, it's a nightmare defensive matchup, with highly disciplined players everywhere except PF, which also happens to be New Orleans' deepest position with OMP and Flagg waiting in the wings to step in if JJJ gets in foul trouble. The offense, of course, goes through Tatum just as it did last year.
Possibility #2
IQ/Tatum/Poku/Flagg/Ighodaro
Flagg's superlative perimeter shooting is what ignited the old lineup (which could still be a thing incidentally) and this retains that while having three defenders in IQ/Poku/Ighdaro as the offense sandwich of Tatum and Flagg. JJJ becomes the 6th man PF/CE role (honestly he'd play the 4 and 5 in #1 too), with OMP as the backup SF.
Possibility #3
IQ/Tatum/OMP/Flagg/JJJ
Why change what worked last year with the substantial body of evidence? Under this scenario, Ighodaro plays the backup 5 while Poku comes off the bench as a 32 MPG 6th man SF/PF.
What's Clear
Barring a trade or trades, Quickley and Tatum are the starting backcourt, Whitmore is the backup SF, and yes, probably Evans as the backup PG (though if he can't shoot ATB, it will be Poku there most likely). Mulder will need to rely on injury to break through for PT.
A true backup PG is essential - If Quickley goes down, the situation becomes desperate, Tatum slides to the 1 by default, so dire are things. But the Pelicans also don't want to sign anyone, because they're currently just below the Level 2 Luxury cap threshold. Unlike last year, however, they're actually quite healthy at center. Ray Spalding is a capable enough third-string center, and is actually the team's second-best overall rebounder behind JJJ.
Trades?
As predicted, the Pelicans did not make a major move this summer. Some conversations were held, but almost every move would have resulted in a significant value loss to New Orleans without improving the possibility of contention, so they were all declined, though they did consider seriously for a long time an offer for Poku that they nearly pulled the trigger on because that would have potentially been worth the gamble. Nor does there appear to be any momentum to a radical shakeup. The team has no interest in sacrificing any of their future pieces, and based on the way the financials are set up, they're fine just riding out whatever this season is, letting Tatum, JJJ, Spalding, and Evans G. going out of contract and rights renounced while they extend the QO to OMP and Flagg, using their massive cap space in what looks like a particularly deep UFA class before re-signing their two hybrid forwards.
It'll likely be a third straight season of play-in tournament basketball, as Davison's loss is likely to be felt quite strongly and negates the major improvements New Orleans made to its frontcourt.
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