Off Season Report Card

Per Grantland LINK

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We begin with the team that kicked off the offseason in earnest back in June. Are you ready to jump on the Pelicans bandwagon? It’s time. We thought it was time last year, but then the entire roster got hurt, and the dreams were deferred. Then New Orleans dealt Houston a first-round pick for Omer Asik, taking last year’s “win now” approach and doubling down on it.

Now it’s time to double down with them. Go all in. Grow a unibrow. Get the angry pelican tattooed on your chest. Paint your house that ugly bronze alternate color they chose for some reason.

I believe in the blueprint. Everyone got hurt last year, which made the Pelicans’ offseason look like a flop, but when the core players were healthy, as Kevin Arnovitz pointed out in February, “The Pelicans’ desired closing unit — [Jrue] Holiday, [Eric] Gordon, [Tyreke] Evans, [Ryan] Anderson, [Anthony] Davis — dominated the league offensively this season before its members started dropping like flies, scoring an ungodly 123.5 points per 100 possessions.”

Losing Anthony Morrow this summer will hurt, Monty Williams is still a question mark as a coach, and it’s unclear if they’ll ever be able to move Gordon. But while 15 other teams made bigger moves this summer, the Pelicans are quietly sitting there waiting to explode in a few months.

Even the Evans contract that everyone mocked looks 10 times better after he went for 17.4 points and 6.4 assists per game following the All-Star break. Compare Evans’s four years for $44 million to what Gordon Hayward and Chandler Parsons are getting, and suddenly $11 million a year is decent.

Oh, and Davis. Trusting the Pelicans’ blueprint from the last two summers could look incredibly stupid 12 months from now, but King Brow is the biggest reason I feel confident. He’s the next guy to be in the Durant-LeBron conversation, maybe the only real challenger to the throne for the next five years. And in case you forgot, the Sonics/Thunder with Durant won 20 games, 23 games, and then … jumped to 50. Get in on the Pelicans.

GRADE: B-PLUS, PLUS AN ALIEN WITH BASKETBALL SUPERPOWERS

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Couldn't be more excited to see this team hit the court.. As fans we get excited no matter the circumstances because it's a new season, a new beginning so to speak. BUT this year there are legit reasons to be overly optimistic... Big year for the Pels INC