So here it is, after a very strange offseason and an even more irregular year, Pelicans basketball returns basically in time for it to be a Christmas gift. This time, we're going up against the Tampa Bay Raptors, so the strangeness continues.
Tampa bound to kick the season off 📍✌️ #WontBowDown pic.twitter.com/E5UuMkFjgT
— New Orleans Pelicans (@PelicansNBA) December 22, 2020
Normally, as we know, I write fairly lengthy game day threads which contain a run down of the other team and how they stack up in various metrics, but since this is game one that's not really possible. Instead, I'm just going to remind everyone of where we were last season.
17th in Offense, 19th in defense, the Pelicans in 2019-20 finished with a 30-42 record. We famously went on a 13 game losing streak around this time last year. We finished top 10 in rebounds, assists, and points per game (largely driven by our pace, second fastest in the league, allowing us to rack up stats) but we were the 2nd worst team in the NBA for turnovers, and the 2nd worst at FT% as well.
Due to injuries, the players on the team who actually took the floor in the most games were Josh Hart followed by Jaxson Hayes, and rookie Zion only managed to play in 24 games. During those 24 games, he put up historically dominant scoring statistics, and flashed his passing and IQ, but the defense was worse than many expected, and is an area most of us are hoping for improvement this year.
We just missed out on the playoffs by a few games. Hopefully this year we can make those games up, and even if we aren't a playoff team, we can make a strong run at it.
Tonight we take on the Raptors, who are going to be good just as they are every year. A win would be great, especially considering that this is basically a road game for them too, but what I'm looking for more than a win is for cohesion, effort, and some semblance of tactics. SVG has said he's only planning on playing 8 or 9 guys, which is a vast difference from Gentry's old 12 man minimum, and hopefully will allow for some more consistent play and fewer dodgy lineups. We'll see how that goes.
Fingers crossed: let's kick the season off well!