The Pelicans currently have a 1-11 record, worst in the NBA. They’ve lost eight games in a row. David Griffin, the team’s executive VP of basketball operations, is reportedly on the hot seat. All-Star Zion Williamson has yet to play a game following foot surgery. Fellow former All-Star Brandon Ingram is out for the seventh consecutive game with a hip contusion, per Christian Clark of NOLA.com (Twitter link).
Coach Willie Green said Ingram could return soon following a full practice yesterday, per Andrew Lopez of ESPN (Twitter link). Obviously, that won’t happen tonight.
Needless to say, things are not going well in New Orleans.
According to Scott Kushner of NOLA.com, Griffin has done a poor job building the roster around Zion and Ingram. Kushner says the team’s first-round draft picks under Griffin (aside from Zion) haven’t proven to be reliable rotation players, let alone pieces to build around. He didn’t list them by name, but he was referring to Jaxson Hayes (8th), Nickeil Alexander-Walker (17th), Kira Lewis (13th), and rookie Trey Murphy (17th).
Kusher notes that despite modest expectation from fans, the team is failing to deliver an interesting, competitive product that has a clear direction, and that falls squarely on Griffin.
Here’s more from the Southwest:
- Alexander-Walker has been heavily scrutinized for a slow start to the season, but he was one of the silver linings of the Pelicans‘ loss to the Thunder on Wednesday, scoring 22 points in the fourth quarter. Will Guillory of The Athletic opines that keeping Alexander-Walker in attack-mode is one of the keys for the Pelicans to turn their losing streak around. Guillory also believes the team needs to shorten the rotation and keep believing in each other.
- Despite being in-and-out of the lineup, Thaddeus Young‘s professionalism and workman-like mentality have rubbed off on the young Spurs. He’s also been highly productive in his limited minutes. Young is a free agent at the end of the season and is viewed as a valuable trade chip. He knows he may not last the entire season with the team, but that hasn’t impacted his mindset, writes Mike Finger of the San Antonio Express-News. “I am not sure what is going to happen with me, whether I will be here next year or if I will be here past the trade deadline,” Young said. “But, at the end of the day, at this point in time, this moment, I am here, I am a San Antonio Spur and I am planning on giving 120 percent each night.”
- Check out our Pelicans and Spurs team pages for the most recent notes and rumors on the two teams.
Why let Lonzo Ball walk away? He was one of the key pieces in the A.D. trade. And has been been ballin in Chicago. Bad move by NOP front office!
Bas picks, bad decision to let Lonzo walk, couldn’t build around AD and can’t build around Zion.
BI to leave
Re-signing him does what fir this team?
Re-signing him does what for this team?
Griffin is gone and Zion will be the 1st player to decline rookie max extension. He is gone too
He would be stupid to considering his injury history and weight. Just sign it, then push for a trade.
I predict that NoLa won’t make the playoffs this year. Risky bet, don’t you think?
After the ad trade it was expected the pelicans would be bad for a long time. This will probably be the last year. Package the top 4 pick they will get with some young talent and a Graham or valencunis to get a 3rd star and sign someone like RoCo on the mid level.
RoCo hasn’t lived up to expectations since going to Portland. They believed his defense and shooting was going to move the needle. Don’t know if he’s the guy they need
Needs Lebron to make decisions for him
Zion will accept the max extension. He is too injury prone not to at this stage of his career. He will then be traded for a kings ransom once he puts it all together. They have whiffed on their picks tho. Having picks is great, trading said picks for proven players is better. Draft is a crapshoot. You may find 10 guys that come out of a draft each year but they are scattered among 60 picks not just the 1st 10.
NOP is likely to always be a team in some stage of rebuild mode tbh. They honestly only contended 2 seasons since inception.