Can the Pelicans be Contenders?

Can the Pelicans be Contenders?

When healthy the New Orleans Pelicans have been one of the best teams in the Western Conference this season but yet the consensus around them seems to be that they don’t have what it takes to compete in the playoffs with most people putting them behind teams even like the

Mavericks and the Suns despite the Pelicans having a better record so that BS the question do the Pelicans have what it takes to compete come playoff time and make it to maybe a Western Conference Finals or an NBA Finals now NBA Finals might be a bit of a stretch

But I do think they’re in a good position to make a lot of noise in the playoffs in general whenever I hear discourse about the Pelicans and their playoff chances everyone seems to say that they’re missing something or they don’t have that superstar that is necessary to win a championship but

Looking at their roster there’s a lot to like and maybe even a potential Superstar hiding in plain sight so let’s start with the top three guys this is probably no surprise but let’s start with taking a look at Zion Williamson or as I like to call him The Big Easy so

Just a few years ago Zion was seen as the next big thing in the NBA it was basically Luca and Zion destined to be the faces of them NBA or the quote unquote next lebronze as it were but due to injury and some odd controversy Zion

Has kind of fallen out of the spotlight and it almost feels like he’s forgotten about if you’re not like highly tapped into the NBA now I know Zion has literally zero NBA playoff experience but despite that I think he’s in a great position to put a lot of people on

Notice when the playoffs come around mostly this season when people talk about Zion they mention how he’s not producing like he used to what we’ve seen him do in the past sure his scoring volume is down and even as a efficiency is down a little bit but it’s still

Elite nonetheless so looking at that why do I think Zion can be a big performer come playoff time well it kind of comes down to the people around him so let’s take a look at CJ McCollum C.J mccollum’s been in the NBA for quite a while now and he’s having a really good

Season this year shooting 42% from three but one of the things I really like about CJ on this team is that he’s a proven playoff performer historically throughout his career he’s been great in the playoffs and playing with a player like Zion and another guy like Brandon

Ingram he won’t be asked to do too much but it’ll also alleviate the pressure off of those guys when he needs to CJ McCullum could be the kind of guy who win the playoffs maybe even puts the team on his back for a game maybe even

Two games but now let’s look at Brandon Ingram or as I like to call him The Big Easy yes I call both him and Zion The Big Easy now as far as playoff experience goes he’s only played six games in his career but he was phenomenal in those six games now that’s

A small sample size but that is a good sign in this season assuming Zion stays healthy that’ll hopefully be able to help Ingram get better looks than he was getting in last year’s playoffs because of the playmaking aspect that Zion can introduce into the offense now the

Pelicans aren’t a great clutch team they don’t really do well in the clutch but Brandon Ingram is a pretty good isolation scorer shooting just above 50% on isolations which is better than players like Kevin Durant and Anthony Edwards this season so he could could be a go-to guy in endgame situations with

CJ McCollum being a backup so now that we’ve talked about the Pelicans three stars let’s look at their results no more theorizing let’s just look at how they’ve played this season so for starters they’re fifth in the Western Conference and they’ve been on a tear since the start of the new year they’ve

Been so good in fact that they’re fourth in net rating in the entire NBA this is largely because they’re one of the few teams that’s top 10 in both offense and defense being sixth best defensively in the league and currently 10th best offensively they’re also a pretty efficient team

Being 10th in true shooting percentage and just outside the top 10 and effective field goal percentage and I think the main reason they’re able to do this is because of their depth now their top three guys are really good but they have six players averaging double digit

Points on their roster and a rookie in Jordan Hawkins who’s averaging just over nine points himself as a capable shooter Herbert Jones is having a career shooting year and plays really good defense averaging just over 11 points he’s even garnered a a lot of Praise from his teammates with the way that he

Plays defense or just competes in General on the court Trey Murphy thei third now this is a guy that would probably be seen as a young star if he was on a different rebuilding team but the guy can go off in certain games and to illustrate that let’s look at his

Averages over his last five games so currently at the time of recording this over his last five games Trey Murphy is averaging 22 points 5 and 1 half rebounds three assist and about a steel and a half on really good efficiency shooting 50% from three now obviously that’s a shooting percentage that can’t

Be maintained but this is a really good player who could really do some damage in the playoffs especially with defenses honing in on players like Zion Ingram and CJ McCollum now that brings us to the third and final guy that I sometimes refer to as the Big Easy yonas valent

Chunis now this guy is a walking double double and if you haven’t watched him play in a few years his improved three ball might surprise you now sometimes the spacing can be a little bit questionable with both him and Zion on the court but I think with the Versa U

Ility that they have in their lineups playing yonas in the playoffs won’t really be a problem sure maybe he’ll only play 25 minutes a game but that’s around what he plays right now anyways so so far we’ve mentioned seven really good players on this team and that’s not

Even it that’s not to mention the defensive depth that they have with Dyson Daniels who when he’s healthy is probably one of the best defenders in the NBA and then there’s a guy like Jose Alvarado or you might know him as Grand Theft Auto with the way that he gets

Steal sneaking up behind people he’s also a quality point guard who can throw lobs to Zion and hit a couple shots when you need him to and then there’s a guy like Larry Nance who’s just a solid role player and a guy that you’re not mad about playing 20 minutes

A game if he needs to or maybe he’ll only play 10 he’s just a guy who can slide in play good defense and throw down a couple dunks and we’re still not even done there’s players like Naji Marshall who’s a solid role player he can play decent defense and hit a couple

Shots just recently he had a game with 19 points and went four for four from behind the line and then a guy like Matt Ryan who’s dealt with some injuries this year but when he’s playing he’s a really good shooter who can light it up and put some

Points on the board when needed so let’s review this is a long defensive team that has no problem putting points on the board in a variety of ways they have a former number one overall pick who may still be able to reach Superstar levels a proven playoff performer in CJ

McCollum and a guy who’s a walking bucket in Brandon Ingram but he’s also not a black hole and is a really good playmaker in addition to that so to me that sounds like a pretty darn great team one that might shock a lot of people come playoff time but that’s all

I really had for you guys today let me know what you guys think about the Pelicans down in the comments below how far do you think they can go in the playoffs will they make it out of the first round will they be a first round

Exit or could they maybe even go to the Western Conference Finals now personally I probably still have the Nuggets coming out of the Western Conference to make it to the finals but the Pelicans are a really good team that I definitely want to keep an eye on and one last thing

Before I go I think it’s really interesting the way people look at Zion I think one of the things that actually hurts him in evaluations is because of this team’s depth they have so many people putting points on the board that Zion only scores around like what 22

Points a game and people kind of like look at him less because of that it’s like he doesn’t have to score 28 points a game for this team to be good but yet he kind of gets criticized because he’s not doing that I don’t know it’s just

It’s just something to think about but yeah I appreciate you guys watching um if you’re not subscribed consider subscribing so you don’t miss the next video if you like the video give it a like it really helps me out and if you guys are subscribed then hey I

Appreciate you guys thanks for watching and sticking around but I’ll catch you guys in the next one Peace

The Pelicans have quietly been one of the best teams in the NBA after a rough start to the season. After recording this video the Pelicans won another game against the Hawks, and Trey Murphy had an absolutely insane game yet again.