4 Reasons Why The Pelicans Will Run The West Next Season

4 Reasons Why The Pelicans Will Run The West Next Season

the first reason why the dejonte Murray trade has made the New Orleans Pelicans true title contenders is that improved defense even last season the Pelicans had an elite defense ranking seventh best in the league but now bringing in De jante Murray and having a Zion who’s been in shape and is looking good so far this off season New Orleans should have a top three defense next season that defense though will still start with herb Jones who’s arguably the best defensive player in the entire league as last year he finished fourth in the defensive Player of the Year voting while he was also able to space the floor shooting 41% on his triples here Jones moves his feet and stays in front of Desmond Bane to come up with the block herb is not afraid of putting his body on the line either first coming up with a charge on Josh Hart and then later on Emanuel quickly here Stephan Curry makes a terrible mistake as he enters the paint with herb Jones and gets his shot blocked he’s also a great help Defender as here Wiggins gets the mismatch with the rookie Hawkin and Herb Jones is having none of it coming over to force the turnover here one-onone with SGA Shay actually loses him for a second but only for a second as herb is still able to recover to force a miss here Jones finds himself out of position and giddy makes a perfect crosscourt pass to sgaa in the corner open for a triple in a hurry here nice skip pass s what a block oh Jones started that close out in the middle of the paint and still came up with a block that’s the kind of Defense we’re talking about with Herbert Jones but of course the reason the Pelicans made the trade for Murray was because of his defense also but even though he isn’t as good of a Defender as Jones and was on the 27th worst defense in the whole league last season with the Atlanta Hawks there’s no doubt that Deonte Murray is still a great one-on-one Defender here playing off ball Murray reads the pass to Harris and comes up with a steal leading to some easy points here with the game on the line on the road against Oklahoma he absolutely clamps up SGA making two game saving deflections and winning his team the ball game off of the back of his defense but later in this video I’ll show you just how he can win ball games off the back of his offense also here with Indiana on the fast break they play it about as well as you can but even that’s not good enough against Murray as he swats away tyre’s Hal Burton’s layup then still in the same game he reads this pass intended for halberton as he comes up with the steal and finishes to play with a nice reverse layup here with the game on the line yet again this time in Sacramento Murray finds himself one-on-one with dear and fox and comes up with a steal giving Atlanta a three-point lead with a layup dejonte Murray is a winner and these plays show you just that the second reason why the Pelicans will make noise in the Western Conference next season is because of the likely Improvement to their offense down the stretch of last season the Pelicans offense was a train wreck and that was before Zion’s injury but after the injury to Williamson near the end of the playing game against the Lakers New Orleans never looked the same offensively even though they beat the kings in the second play in game the Thunder defense proved to be way too much for the Pelicans offense now that is one contributing factor to the poor offense but there’s more to unpack here the Pelicans Elite scorers were not efficient from the field as during the Thunder sweep of the pills Ingram only managed to put up 14 points a game on 34% shooting and immediately 25% from three but it wasn’t just Brandon Ingram’s offense that was the issue as the Pelicans had a widespread issue when it came to Fourth quarters last season last season the Pelicans went 0 and 26 after trailing heading into a fourth quarter and in six of those games they were leading by more than 20 points throughout the game and still managed to lose it it was clear that when the Pelicans got down late in games they just didn’t believe that they had what it took to come back at this point the Pelicans fans didn’t really know who to blame and the original thought was that the Pelicans didn’t want to extend Brandon Ingram’s contract that would be worth over $200 million and would extend over 4 years as they would intend to trade him the teams that would have been suitors for Brandon Ingram was the Sixers who have $60 million burning a hole in their pocket the Cleveland Cavaliers if they wanted to break up the core of Donovan Mitchell Darius Garland and Jared Allen and the Atlanta Hawks were actually another team that could have used Brandon Ingram’s scoring ability next to Trey young however with the recent statements made by David Griffin the Pelicans GM they have appeared to have had a change of heart Brandon wants to stay here and he believes in what we’re building and that’s meaningful to us it’s meaningful to him I think it’s meaningful to his agent and of course only days later the Pelicans would make the trade for Deonte maray to complete their vision for the foreseeable future which in this current NBA landscape isn’t very long but now with a likely starting lineup of Murray McCullum Ingram Williamson and at this point Jonas valent Tunis New Orleans have a squad that should be top 10 in both defense and offense McCullum and Ingram need to shoot the ball better than they did last season and with fewer shots I believe that they should be able to do this of course Mario will be a huge Factor when it comes to how this team play his offense and at times last season it felt like he took too many tough shots halting the flow of his team’s offense but there’s also no denying that Murray isn’t a capable offensive player and Atlanta felt the same way when they traded for DJ giving up denino galinari a pick Swap and three firsts however the results were not the greatest as Atlanta essentially gave up all of their assets and became the same team in 2023 the Hawks finished with the seventh best offense but the defense didn’t get better as they had hoped as they still finished 22nd worst in the league then this past season the Hawks got even worse with the newly appointed head coach Quinn Snyder finishing with the 12th best offense and the 27th worst defense so Atlanta gave up all of these assets and it essentially did nothing for them actually getting worse with Murray many thought that Atlanta would trade Trey young but after making the Cinderella run in 2021 to the Conference Finals I think we all knew deep down that Trey young was staying as an Atlanta Hawk however the good news for the Hawks was that they were able to sign Jon Murray for a really good contract as he’s only making $28 million until his player option in 2028 that’s amazing value for one of the best two-way players in this league last season M was able to put up 22 points five rebounds and six assists while shooting 46% from the floor and now that he’s with New Orleans the Pelicans will get that same value and this is the kind of offense I’m talking about here oneon-one with Anthony Edwards he beats him off the dribble and even though ant is able to recover Murray is smart enough to get the ball to the glass quickly and draw a goal tend on Ant he’s also a great mid-range shooter as here he attacks the close out of Alexander Walker and drops in two throughout the regular season DJ was an elite mid-range scorer making 49% of his shots in that area but of course he doesn’t like the three-point shooting either as here in transition he just pulls up for three and knocks it down this possession right here is exactly why the Pelicans traded for him as with time running down he gets the Hawks three more points with this deep pull Murray is one of the better clutch players in this league as on back-to- back games he made two game winners first against the magic Bano ties the game with 8 seconds left with a triple Atlanta decided not to call the timeout and Murray calmly Works Marquel folz right to his spot and knocks down the gamewinner at the buzzer then only a game later against Miami they find themselves down two points with the ball with the options to tie the game with a two or win with a three Murray boldly picks win with a three and pulls up on a near 30-footer and calls game again with this kind of scoring punch down the stretch the Pelicans knew this was something that they could not pass up on the third reason why New Orleans will be great next season is because of what they still have after the trade so according to W the Pelicans are trading the 2025 first round pick via the Lakers a least favorable bu/ Pelicans first round pick in 2027 and more which we would later find out to be Dyson Daniels this came out of complete left field and at first it was confusing why either team would want to make this trade but as W explained the Pelicans wanted to do this because of their 0 and 24 record when trailing heading into a fourth quarter and also being 2 and 14 in close games New Orleans sees to jante Murray as a guy who could generate some offense late in games this move by the pills shows that they are fully committed to the core that they currently have which includes Zion Williamson and CJ McCullum New Orleans will also try to find some common ground with Brandon Ingram’s contract whereas the Hawks are ending the Murray Trey young experiment and are bringing in a promising young wing and Dyson Daniels and getting a pick in the Deep 2025 draft so let’s break this down for New Orleans it’s a master stroke bringing in a guy of Murray’s caliber while keeping guys like herb Jones Alvarado and Trey Murphy this kind of a deal is one that’s going to make Brandon Ingram take a look around and think do I really want to leave a team that just made a huge trade and could potentially make us title contenders next season if you can remember back to the early stages of 2023 where the Pelicans were fully healthy and sat at top of the Western Conference they were looking very good that was of course until Zion’s injury but Deonte Mari might just prove to be that piece that New Orleans needs to get back to that form with this in mind I believe that Ingram will likely take a pay cut to rejoin the Pelicans and if he does this will free up money to make this team even deeper by signing a great free agent or extending a guy like Trey Murphy the fourth reason why this trade makes the New Orleans Pelicans potential title contenders is the added versatility in their lineups as I mentioned earlier the new starting lineup for 2025 is looking very scary with Murray being a great two-way player along with Brandon Ingram also being a capable Defender the Pelicans have constructed a team that was very similar to the OKC team that just ran through the Western Conference only a season ago with Zion also coming into some great form at the end of the season and how he’s tracking so far in the off season I believe that the Pelicans will be one of the better two-way teams in the league next season likely having a top 10 offense and defense which could carry them far in the postseason if they’re able to maintain health and that is the biggest question for me surrounding this Pelicans team heading into the 2025 season with Zion’s injury history you can never fully back this team in when it comes to making it far in the playoffs but at some point Zion will be healthy for a postseason run and if his teammates are also healthy and playing well this Pelicans team has a real shot to win the Western Conference finals and potentially give the Celtics problems if they were to meet in the finals personally I believe that the Pelicans just performed highway robbery on the Atlanta Hawks but that’s just my take who do you think won the trade and could the Pelicans now be title contenders let me know in the comments below

4 Reasons Why The Pelicans Will Run The West Next Season

Today I’ll tell you 4 reasons why the New Orleans Pelicans will be NBA title contenders in the 2025 NBA season now that they have Dejounte Murray to pair with Zion Williamson, CJ McCollum and Brandon Ingram
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