If it isn’t already, the NBA should be on notice.
The New Orleans Pelicans have arrived – perhaps slightly ahead of their time – in a big way amid a scintillating surge to start the season as the hottest team in the league.
The Pelicans have gone 12-3 over their last 15 games – including a recent seven-game winning streak and back-to-back statement wins over the Phoenix Suns – to climb into the Western Conference’s No. 1 seed.
Watch an average of 9 LIVE NBA Regular Season games per week on ESPN on Kayo Sports on ESPN on Kayo Sports. New to Kayo? Start your free trial now >
Fri, 16 Dec
Friday December 16th
While most picked the Pelicans to be big improvers this season that could win 50-plus games and push for a top four seed in the West, not many could’ve predicted they’d be this good.
After all, it’s a conference featuring heavyweights such as the Suns, Clippers, Warriors, Nuggets and Grizzlies – but the Pels might be the best of the lot.
As things stand, only the Celtics (22-7) and Bucks (20-7) have a better record league-wide than the 18-9 Pelicans, who’ve been elite on both sides of the ball under second-year coach Willie Green.
New Orleans is ranked sixth in the NBA in offensive rating, and perhaps more impressively, ranked third in defensive rating – an area they finished 23rd last season.
They’re the only team in the league rated top six in both categories, and they’re also third in net rating.
Numbers aside, the Pelicans are a seriously talented and deep side that can do it all with no glaring holes.
THE ZION EFFECT
Most prominently, a now-healthy Zion Williamson, who averaged 30 points on 66% shooting, 9.1 rebounds and 5.3 assists over their seven-game winning streak to shoot up into MVP conversations, has led the charge.
The former No.1 pick is finally living up to his potential after overcoming a slew of injuries that plagued the early parts of his career including missing all of last season with a foot issue.
The opposition simply haven’t had any answers for the 6-foot-6, 130kg wrecking ball as Williamson has silenced his critics.
If Williamson wasn’t already hard enough to stop, he’s even shown off some new tricks including a playmaking element to his game.
“If it’s not unstoppable, I haven’t seen anyone that can stop it as of yet,” former NBA player Antonio Daniels said on SiriusXM NBA Radio.
“It’s not just unstoppable in the sense of stopping him from scoring, because that’s only one aspect of it.
“Another aspect is his ability to see the floor and make his teammates better.
“He did a post-game presser a couple of guys ago where he talked about guys he grew up watching … they were all point guards – everybody.
“It’s one thing to be able to see the floor, it’s another thing to have the skill set to actually be able to see the floor and deliver the pass – two different things.
“And that’s what makes great players great players.”
There’s almost a sense of destiny with Williamson and the Pelicans to do great things after he joined the team with the first overall draft pick three years ago – and has been such a figure of interest since.
But, of course, it’s been far from smooth sailing up until now.
As well as Williamson having to watch from the sidelines for most of the start of his career due to injuries – including last year’s playoff appearance – the Pelicans’ first since the 2018 Anthony Davis era – there’s also been question marks around his future with the franchise .
Multiple reports stated Williamson was unhappy with New Orleans for the way it handled his knee injury in his 2019/20 season.
There was then more talk last year of whether either party could consider a split after the Pelicans started the season with a dire 1-11 record while the injured star approached his first key contract call.
But any doubts were allayed in July when he signed a five-year rookie max extension worth at least $193 million (AUD $307m) – a deal that reportedly contains a weight clause – that kicks in at the start of the 2023/24 season in a showing of long-term commitment from both the player and the team.
While it seemed like a no-brainer for the Pelicans – and may well have been behind closed doors all along – there was some level of risk given he’d only played 85 of a possible 226 games across the first three seasons of his career amid criticism around his commitment to rehab and whether or not his hulking frame would ever hold up to the rigors of the NBA’s grueling 82-match schedule.
Indeed, this time last year, there were genuine fears about his future in the league altogether.
But it’s fair to say he’s so far repaid the Pelicans’ faith and then some, almost playing with a chip on his shoulder – underlined by an emphatic windmill dunk against the Suns last week when the game was already over.
He averaged 25 points on 61% shooting, 7.3 rebounds, 4.3 assists and 1.3 steals from 22 of a possible 27 games on the season.
This version of Williamson with a point to prove is a scary prospect for the rest of the NBA. Just ask Phoenix.
“Beyond the basketball and physical specimen, he’s got his f*** you back – I don’t know where his f*** you went, his f*** you was gone for two years,” The Ringer’s Bill Simmons said on The Bill Simmons Podcast.
“He’s demolishing dudes and he’s making the f*** you face afterwards. He’s looking over at the bench, like: ‘Can you believe that guy tried to guard me?’
“He’s seeping f*** you. I love it so much, I’ve missed watching him and I’m so glad he’s back.
“Those two Phoenix games … Zion was basically bully balling them for two games. He was like: ‘You f***ing guys, get out of here’ … I loved it.”
THE SUPPORTING CAST
Williamson aside, there’s so much more to like about the Pelicans, with the team arguably emerging from the ashes of the Davis trade in 2019 in a stronger position.
Perhaps most impressively, they’ve surged to the top of the West despite the absence of Brandon Ingram (missed 12 games) and Herb Jones (10 games) for significant periods.
In fact, Ingram – their second-best player who averaged 20.8 points per game, 5.1 rebounds and 4.7 assists this season – didn’t feature at all over their seven-game winning streak.
And yet basically this same team went 33-30 from Thanksgiving last season including 13-10 after the All-Star break to charge into the playoffs without its best player in Williamson.
Their other trade additions in recent years are Jonas Valanciunas, CJ McCollum and Larry Nance Jr. – a throw in the McCollum deal – have also proven valuable to provide a veteran presence and level of maturity.
Plus McCollum has yet to really hit his stride this season, shooting a career-worst 40% from the field and 32% from three – numbers that seem certain to come up.
New Orleans has also drafted well with the likes of Jones, Trey Murphy, Jose Alvardao and Dyson Daniels rounding out a seriously talented core plus Naji Marshall.
You can see when a switch has flicked for a team, players have all bought into their role and everything has come together with a commitment to winning, and that’s happened with the Pelicans.
It’s a team that, as contracted, has all the tools to go deep in the playoffs.
“I think they’re good enough to win the West right now, full stop,” ESPN journalist Zach Lowe said on The Lowe Post.
“The Warriors, Clippers and Nuggets – those teams have a better experienced level of polish at full strength that the Pelicans don’t have.
“But all those teams have been up and down – scuffling, injured, whatever – the Pelicans have just been up.
“The way Zion is playing and has played since Brandon Ingram went out of the line-up has changed their offense, team and trajectory to the point where he’s butting his way into the MVP conversation.
“I think it’s there for them now.”
AUSSIES MAKING WAVES
The Bendigo-born Pick 8 Daniels has been one of the great stories in having an immediate impact and providing an added layer of interest in the Pelicans among Australians.
The 19-year old’s stellar form – particularly on the defensive end, where he’s been assigned to superstars like LeBron James, Luka Doncic and Devin Booker – has commanded him to play more minutes – aided by the team’s injury issues – including starting five games in recent weeks.
It’s pretty incredible that an Aussie teenager is playing a meaningful role for the best team in the West and one of the best sides overall in the NBA.
In fact, the rookie’s promotion to proper rotation minutes in mid-November coincided with the team’s uptick – 7-6 before and 11-3 since … coincidence?
While his statistical averages of 5.7 points per game, 3.7 rebounds, 2.5 assists, 0.6 threes, 0.7 steals in 20.4 minutes might seem underwhelming, they do increase to 10 points, 6.6 rebounds, 4.4 assists, one three and 1.3 steals per 36 minutes – and he’s shooting over 50% from the field and 39% from downtown.
But the box scores don’t tell the story of how the athletic and versatile 6-foot-7 (201cm) Daniels has been a genuine impact player when he takes the floor and contributed to winning – and this is more highly valued in NBA circles – particularly from a rookie with so much upside to improve.
It’s well and truly put Daniels on the map in the league and into All-Rookie Team calculations.
Dazzling Dyson shines against Suns 01:28
“I’m sitting back and Daniels’ ability to be a winning player as a rookie is just so rare,” Australian NBA journalist Kane Pitman said on the Ball and the Real World Podcast.
“Sometimes people at the box score and say: ‘Oh Dyson Daniels started, he got five points.’ He is contributing in a big way.
“This Pelicans team last year were bottom half in the league for defense, they’re top five in the league for defense now.
“Even when he got drafted, that was the word that was coming out – they wanted more guys that could be versatile defensively.
“You don’t always think a 19-year-old is going to be able to come out and do that – because the reality is not many do.
“They’ve got Herb Jones who was able to do that, so shout out to the Pelicans for the way they’ve drafted. They’re putting together a serious team.”
Put everything together and you have one of the stories of the season in the Pelicans.
Again, this wasn’t a team that was necessarily thought of as a contender going into the campaign, but suddenly a strong opposition wouldn’t want to run into the playoffs.
Even if this isn’t the Pels’ season to genuinely compete – and that could be selling them short – the team in the Big Easy is building an NBA powerhouse.
Good luck stopping it.
.