I'm sorry, here I thought I'd ended up on a Pelicans team board, and instead it seems that I accidentally landed on a Lakers or other entitled team's board.
Here's the entire franchise history of the team I THOUGHT this board followed:
https://i.imgsafe.org/43/433443e7c8.png
One single 2nd round appearance in 15 years. Heck, even if you included the entire franchise history of Charlotte, both Hornets and Bobcats, you'd STILL never, in 28 years of Charlotte ball and 15 of Pels ball, so 43 total years and not a single appearance beyond the second round.
And heck, while we're at it, I could throw in the Raptors for 22 more years and 1 single ECF appearance that would not have been an ECF in the West. Minny made it to the WCF 1 single time in their 28 years. In fact only past the first round 1 time in 28 years. I could turn to old franchises and find that the Wizards even been past the 2nd round in 39 years. Atlanta hasn't been past the 2nd round in 47 years. For that matter neither have the Clippers.
But now Pelicans fans have mysteriously gotten so high and mighty they are gonna throw down the "boo!! they'll NEVER make it past the 2nd round of the playoffs" gauntlet. "Boooorring!"
That's odd, and the thing is even if I believed it, which I don't -- it flies in the face of league history -- you could make the exact same statement about almost every team fighting for playoff positioning in the West.
If this team sticks with Nurkic - Lillard - McCollum as their core moving forward, they will never make it past the second round of the playoffs. Never.
If this team sticks with Murray - Milsap - Jokic as their core moving forward, they will never make it past the second round of the playoffs. Never.
If this team sticks with Gobert - Favors - Mitchell as their core moving forward, they will never make it past the second round of the playoffs. Never.
If this team sticks with Evans - Conley - Gasol as their core moving forward, they will never make it past the second round of the playoffs. Never.
But of course maybe they will. All it takes is a sprained ankle.