What are your early expectations for the Pels next year?

With the right moves, I think next season is promising. Let’s see who we have right now.

Bledsoe/Lonzo/BI/Zion/Adams
Kira/NAW/Hart/Naji/Hayes/Hernangomez

What gets me excited about this group is the bench. Naji looks a big time steal.NAW looks every bit like a rotational guy with the ability to get better and carry some games here and there. Hayes is jamming right now (and we know his upside) and we already know Hart can be a big factor on some nights. Let’s say we replace Bledsoe with a good bench piece or starter depending on how we see NAW. Maybe we package Adams and Bled with picks/talent to acquire a star/starter. We re-sign Lonzo and Hart (or find a solid player to package Lonzo for), and the personnel we have improve their 3 ball.

It’s all very dependent on how the guys improve in the offseason, but the foundation is there. It isn’t hopeless by any means. The question is always- how many more missteps will we take? We can’t afford another miss or two. We are about to find how shrewd/dumb our front office is. I like Adams, but expecting him to fit with Zion was quite simply a foolish dream. To add insult to injury, we caved to OKC and moved Hill instead of Bled. We can’t make any more of those errors.

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Originally Posted by fullcourtpress

I concur; I love watching our Point-forwards run the show, but at the end of games their turn-overs were killing us. they needed to back it-out when it wasn't there like a true pg could.

i wonder if davion mitchell, being older, could help in that regartd

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You don't plan your entire future around something that is likely to change naturally over the next year. As much as their turnovers frustrated us, neither Ingram nor Zion had particularly high turnover rates this year; almost all of the league's best creators were significantly more turnover prone than both of them.

Zion: TOV% of 11.6%, 84th in the NBA
Ingram: TOV% of 11.0%, 93rd in the NBA.

Neither of these numbers are particularly bad. The turnover problems existed at times, absolutely, but this is the sort of thing that you expect to improve with experience anyway, and with better spacing that will prevent help defenders from crowding them nearly so badly. This team needs defense and additional talent: hunting down someone to take the ball out of our best players hands to save us 1.6 turnovers per game is not the way forward.

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Originally Posted by Pelicanidae

You don't plan your entire future around something that is likely to change naturally over the next year. As much as their turnovers frustrated us, neither Ingram nor Zion had particularly high turnover rates this year; almost all of the league's best creators were significantly more turnover prone than both of them.

Zion: TOV% of 11.6%, 84th in the NBA
Ingram: TOV% of 11.0%, 93rd in the NBA.

Neither of these numbers are particularly bad. The turnover problems existed at times, absolutely, but this is the sort of thing that you expect to improve with experience anyway, and with better spacing that will prevent help defenders from crowding them nearly so badly. This team needs defense and additional talent: hunting down someone to take the ball out of our best players hands to save us 1.6 turnovers per game is not the way forward.

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Absolutely. Our turnovers from BI and Zion are mainly due to defenders crowding the driving lanes and harassing them as they drove. You get better shooters and you’ll find that the lanes open up more and the offense become much simpler and efficient, which should lead to less turnovers.

Next season will probably sink or swim on Ingram and Zion taking a leap defensively in individual and team defense. If they don't... Struggle bus status. Your best two players cannot be defensive liabilities. This whole you take the bad with the good with Ingram and try to hide it. You really can't function as a contender if you have to hide your 2nd best player.

Defense starts from the top. We bring in new guards, but I promise you that it won't be enough.

Jax improving even more defensively will be huge

He has Gobert potential defensively with an actual offensive repertoire

We could be looking at a max guy here

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Originally Posted by AusPel

Jax improving even more defensively will be huge

He has Gobert potential defensively with an actual offensive repertoire

We could be looking at a max guy here

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I think that's unlikely but if he hit his absolute top 99th percentile outcome then that would definitely be a huge contract guy.

If everything goes right for Jax and he develops perfectly with no hidden downsides, he's a 7 footer with a huge wingspan and elite athleticism who can defend ballhandlers on switches, is mobile enough to protect the perimeter and trap, is an elite play finisher at the rim who gets to the line at a high rate and shoots well from there, can stretch the floor, do auxiliary ballhandling and high level passing for a big.

If just a handful of those things (elite play finishing, interior defense) can get Capela $17m a year, I don't see how you could get away with paying someone less than $23m a year to do all of them.

That is assuming everything goes right though, and in reality it's likely that at least a few parts of that won't quite turn out. Maybe the shot never turns into anything and his mobility (and therefore top tier switchability) drops as he adds muscle. Even then, that's a very good player, but not in that upper pay tier anymore.

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Originally Posted by Pelicanidae

I think that's unlikely but if he hit his absolute top 99th percentile outcome then that would definitely be a huge contract guy.

If everything goes right for Jax and he develops perfectly with no hidden downsides, he's a 7 footer with a huge wingspan and elite athleticism who can defend ballhandlers on switches, is mobile enough to protect the perimeter and trap, is an elite play finisher at the rim who gets to the line at a high rate and shoots well from there, can stretch the floor, do auxiliary ballhandling and high level passing for a big.

If just a handful of those things (elite play finishing, interior defense) can get Capela $17m a year, I don't see how you could get away with paying someone less than $23m a year to do all of them.

That is assuming everything goes right though, and in reality it's likely that at least a few parts of that won't quite turn out. Maybe the shot never turns into anything and his mobility (and therefore top tier switchability) drops as he adds muscle. Even then, that's a very good player, but not in that upper pay tier anymore.

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I'll definitely bet on Jax reaching his potential over Zo

Jax has that raw, killer instinct which is so exciting of a guy with his attributes

I have to praise Griff on this one

In fact, Jax is way more deserving of the 'Killa' nickname than NAW

Jax been taking souls ever since he entered the league

This offseason is make or break for this front office. Playoffs or bust.

Playoffs or bust?

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Originally Posted by AusPel

In fact, Jax is way more deserving of the 'Killa' nickname than NAW

Jax been taking souls ever since he entered the league

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Disagree. From the time they both took the court in Summer League after their draft, NAW has been the difference maker, the one defenses worried about, Jax has just made the highlight plays.
PS I love them both.

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Originally Posted by WildlifeAirGrp

Sadly, an arena half full - if that. Team might be 8th seed. City gets somewhat excited. If floundering 9+ seed, talk of moving franchise to Seattle. Thanks to hiring SVG.

But what do I know?

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Dang, I was pretty spot on with that prediction. My expectations are remarkably higher than last season. I still see a team wallering around 8/9/10, but I like the new coach. Maybe he has a little magic.

But what do I know.

I’d expect them to win game one but they won’t.

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Originally Posted by Darkhorse985

I’d expect them to win game one but they won’t.

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Ben Simmons is out. And we are a bad match up for Philly since they can't shot 3s lol.

So... We got a chance.

Pelicans +3.5
Bulls - 4
Celtics ML
Minn ML
Lakers ML
Cavs +8
OKC +12

I'm betting about $30 per game. Throw it together for a $10 parlay. Gonna try to catch some live covers.

Ready for opening night shenanigans.

We still thinking playoffs, or nah?

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Originally Posted by Taker597

More disappointment?

If next year is a failure. Benson would probably have to cater to Zion's camp over Griffin. If that means if Zion wants Griffin out. Benson should logically concede. Griffin didn't maximize getting talent in a rebuild through traditional means. At most, he build a roster that only means to harm ourselves in the long term in a time when we shouldn't have expectations to compete.

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Hot damn.

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Originally Posted by UNO Gracias

We still thinking playoffs, or nah?

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Depends on how quick Zion comes back and how he looks then.

If he comes back after 10 games and looks like himself, then yeah. He changes everything for this roster, makes so much easier on so many other people, and fills so many gaping holes that we very clearly have (this team has a serious lack of interior scoring, this team lacks some self creation, this team lacks someone who gets to the line like a machine, etc).

If he takes 20 games to come back and then takes another 5 or 10 to warm back up? Nah, no playoffs happening there.

Thread title needs to change,

Will the Pelicans win a game this season? If so When?

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Originally Posted by UNO Gracias

We still thinking playoffs, or nah?

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They thought I was being childish last week for starting a tank thread. I was just trying to help.

#TrusttheProcess

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Originally Posted by Pelicanidae

If he comes back after 10 games and looks like himself, then yeah.

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Yeah, we know, you have him walking on water, too.

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Originally Posted by As I See It

Yeah, we know, you have him walking on water, too.

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Minutes restrictions, Does not play last 6 minutes of game even if wants to play. David ‘ s policy.