THE Pelicans will they finally be able to breathe a little, in this off-season? After a chaotic last month ahead of the Draft, marked in particular by rumors of strong interest in Scoot Henderson and a possible transfer from Zion Williamson, then finally by a desire to put the pieces back together with the star interior, the New Orleans club has not known that restful moments.
But now that the Draft has passed, and that the Scoot Henderson rumor, now officially a Blazers player, is buried for good, calm is finally returning to Louisiana, and we are planning better.
Zion Williamson is still there, and the franchise wants to put him back in the spotlight, and the rest of the core squad is also under contract for next season. On the management side, we hope that after the storm comes good weather, and we are therefore betting on continuity to bounce back next season.
A recruitment axis: the protection of the circle
” I don’t expect there to be a lot of changes in our roster between now and training camp. “, declared Trajan Langdon, the GM of the club, after the Draft, successful for the Pelicans with the selection of Jordan Hawkins in the 14th position. ” We are satisfied with our workforce. »
Remarks corroborated by David Griffin, the vice-president of the franchise.
” In this off-season, we were looking to strengthen ourselves in protecting the circle and in shooting. We feel that we have addressed one of these axes. And as we move forward in the offseason, we will address the other axis, if we have the opportunity. “, he added. ” But as [Trajan Langdon] said, we are comfortable with the idea of betting once again on this group, which we consider competitive. »
A group certainly competitive, but unfortunately much too fragile, like the repeated absences of Zion Williamson (53 games missed this season) and Brandon Ingram (37 games) this season.
” Of course, we realize it’s not enough to wave a magic wand and say this time we’re all going to stay healthy. added a lucid David Griffin on this subject. ” But on paper, it’s a group that we appreciate, and that we want to keep. »
Jordan Hawkins, the only rookie?
In short, while the Pelicans will have almost no financial margin in “free agency” from July 1 (157 million dollars already invested in 13 players, with a “luxury tax” set at 165 million next season) , so it looks like rookie Jordan Hawkins will be the club’s only summer recruit.
A young but useful rookie, as David Griffin pointed out, since the young fullback is a solid shooter (39% on 7.6 shots this season), and therefore represents a new “off-ball” option to insert on the field, alongside CJ McCollum, Brandon Ingram and Zion Williamson, the three main running backs and creators of the Pelicans.
” The shoot, in the NBA, it helps win games, and helps create a new source of points on offense » concluded Trajan Langdon. ” In our team, no one presents this profile. The variety of those shots was very important to us, I think his shooting profile was unique in the NCAA this season. So we not only like his intrinsic shooter qualities, but also his profile, and the way he takes his shots. »
| Shots | Bounces | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | GM | Minimum | Shots | 3 points | LF | Off | Def | Early | pd | bp | Int | CT | party | Points |
| Zion Williamson | 29 | 33.0 | 60.8 | 36.8 | 71.4 | 2.0 | 5.0 | 7.0 | 4.6 | 3.4 | 1.1 | 0.6 | 2.2 | 26.0 |
| Brandon Ingram | 45 | 34.2 | 48.4 | 39.0 | 88.2 | 0.5 | 5.0 | 5.5 | 5.8 | 3.3 | 0.7 | 0.4 | 2.6 | 24.7 |
| Cj Mccollum | 75 | 35.3 | 43.7 | 38.9 | 76.9 | 0.7 | 3.6 | 4.4 | 5.7 | 2.4 | 0.9 | 0.5 | 2.0 | 20.9 |
| Trey Murphy III | 79 | 31.0 | 48.4 | 40.6 | 90.5 | 0.7 | 2.8 | 3.6 | 1.4 | 0.8 | 1.1 | 0.5 | 2.0 | 14.5 |
| Jonas Valanciunas | 79 | 24.9 | 54.7 | 34.9 | 82.6 | 2.8 | 7.3 | 10.2 | 1.8 | 2.0 | 0.3 | 0.7 | 3.1 | 14.1 |
| Herb Jones | 66 | 29.5 | 46.9 | 33.5 | 76.4 | 1.5 | 2.6 | 4.1 | 2.5 | 1.3 | 1.6 | 0.6 | 3.2 | 9.8 |
| Naji Marshall | 77 | 23.3 | 43.3 | 30.3 | 78.9 | 0.6 | 3.0 | 3.6 | 2.5 | 1.3 | 0.7 | 0.2 | 1.5 | 9.1 |
| jose alvarado | 61 | 21.5 | 41.1 | 33.6 | 81.3 | 0.5 | 1.9 | 2.3 | 3.0 | 1.3 | 1.1 | 0.2 | 2.0 | 9.0 |
| Josh Richardson | 23 | 23.2 | 41.9 | 38.4 | 76.2 | 0.5 | 2.0 | 2.4 | 1.6 | 1.0 | 1.3 | 0.4 | 2.0 | 7.5 |
| Willy Hernangomez | 38 | 12.0 | 52.7 | 27.3 | 77.9 | 1.5 | 3.2 | 4.7 | 0.9 | 1.0 | 0.4 | 0.3 | 1.7 | 6.9 |
| Larry Nance, Jr. | 65 | 21.2 | 61.0 | 33.3 | 69.6 | 1.6 | 3.8 | 5.4 | 1.8 | 0.6 | 0.9 | 0.6 | 2.0 | 6.8 |
| Devonte Graham | 53 | 15.3 | 36.8 | 34.7 | 74.6 | 0.2 | 1.1 | 1.4 | 2.2 | 0.5 | 0.6 | 0.2 | 0.9 | 5.3 |
| Jaxson Hayes | 47 | 13.0 | 55.1 | 10.3 | 69.9 | 0.8 | 2.0 | 2.8 | 0.7 | 0.7 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 1.4 | 5.0 |
| Kira Lewis, Jr. | 25 | 9.4 | 45.5 | 44.1 | 86.4 | 0.2 | 1.1 | 1.3 | 0.9 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 1.0 | 4.6 |
| Dyson Daniels | 59 | 17.7 | 41.8 | 31.4 | 65.0 | 0.6 | 2.6 | 3.2 | 2.3 | 1.0 | 0.7 | 0.2 | 1.7 | 3.8 |
| Garrett Temple | 25 | 6.5 | 40.0 | 42.3 | 75.0 | 0.2 | 0.5 | 0.7 | 0.5 | 0.2 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 0.6 | 2.0 |
| Dereon Seabron | 5 | 2.3 | 40.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.2 | 0.8 |
