Hardly ever do NBA groups retain the same roster even in back-to-back seasons, however the New Orleans Pelicans have been an outlier, counting on practically the very same main solid over every of the previous three campaigns. The consequence has been a gentle development within the Western Convention standings, going from 36 to 42 to 49 victories since Willie Inexperienced took over as head coach in 2021-22.
Whereas Crescent Metropolis basketball followers have turn into exceptionally acquainted with the 9 or 10 faces in Inexperienced’s nightly rotation, it’s attainable that might change a bit this summer time. Pelicans Government Vice President of Basketball Operations David Griffin stated throughout Tuesday’s exit interviews that the franchise wanted to get a deeper evaluation of what the roster was able to amid an extended stretch of well being earlier than shifting ahead. Improved availability of key gamers allowed the entrance workplace to make extra vital evaluations – Zion Williamson, Brandon Ingram and CJ McCollum logged 737 minutes collectively, for instance – in comparison with earlier seasons.
“I feel up to now we’ve all the time erred on the aspect of continuity,” Griffin stated, “and our takeaway has all the time been ‘Let’s see this group wholesome.’ (Now) I feel we’ve seen this group sufficient. We had a extremely good alternative to see Zion play a profession excessive in video games (with 70). We noticed it for segments of time properly sufficient to grasp that we’ve obtained numerous work to do.”
Griffin cited the problem of competing within the robust Western Convention, which will increase the calls for on what it’ll take to achieve success. As an illustration, the Pelicans’ 49-33 document would’ve been adequate for a No. 3 seed within the East, however within the West, they needed to beat Sacramento in a play-in elimination sport simply to qualify for the playoffs as a No. 8 seed.
“As a result of it’s a traditionally good Western Convention, there are groups that didn’t make the playoffs which might be going to get radically higher this offseason,” Griffin stated, alluding to squads like Sacramento and Golden State ending 10 video games over .500. “We have to do the identical. I feel you’ll see an actual sense of urgency from all of us to try this.”
Trying again on the common season, New Orleans completed tied for the second-most wins in franchise historical past. Nevertheless, that was adopted by a 4-0 sweep to Oklahoma Metropolis that despatched the Pelicans into the offseason on a bitter be aware. Griffin famous the 2 divergent methods to look at the just-completed season.
“I feel the 49 wins are one thing that will’ve led you to imagine we’d be enjoying deep into the (playoffs) at occasions,” Griffin stated. “For very massive chunks of the season, we had the second-best internet ranking within the league and if not for Boston, we might’ve seemed like the perfect staff within the league. I additionally assume we had stretches the place you can see we had numerous room for development and enchancment we would have liked to make.
“Sadly we continued to have damage points, and positively had a giant one on the fallacious time (Williamson’s left hamstring pressure, inflicting him to take a seat out the playoffs). However there are such a lot of positives we take out of the season. It’s actually unlucky the season resulted in the way in which it did. You’d just like the season to crescendo right into a second that lets everyone understand how good your season actually was. We had the No. 1 highway document within the NBA. We had been sixth in defensive ranking, sixth in internet ranking. We had moments the place we actually confirmed what we may very well be, however we did it usually in suits and begins, which is disappointing.”
A part of the Pelicans’ latest roster continuity has stemmed from savvy drafting of contributors reminiscent of Trey Murphy and Herb Jones with the No. 17 and No. 35 general picks, respectively, in 2022. These sorts of gamers ought to put New Orleans in higher place to achieve success long run, however Griffin indicated that the time is now for the Pelicans to make one other bounce within the West.
“Our basis and our nucleus is actually good,” Griffin stated. “You come out of a (playoff) sequence the place a extremely, actually good (Oklahoma Metropolis) staff type of waylays you, and makes you assume you received 9 video games, and never 49 video games. The truth is we received 49 video games and did numerous good issues.
“We’ll take numerous time to undergo (evaluations) as a bunch… however I wish to be actually, actually clear: This isn’t going to be a summer time of complacency. It’s time to get higher.”