Give Your End Of Season Player Grades

Gravy B+
I think this season showed that Gravy could be a good bench player for a contending team. Really like his game.

Brian Roberts A-
Roberts impressed me this year. Coming into this season I thought he would be a scrub but he turned out to be a solid bench player.

Eric Gordon D-
No explanation needed.


Austin Rivers C+

Although Rivers had a bad start to the season, I think towards the end he was starting to piece it together. Obviously not ready for the NBA this year.

Al-Farouq Aminu C+

Meh

Darius Miller B+

Miller was an excellent 2nd round pick. Will be a good bench player in the years to come.


Anthony Davis A-

While playing 29 minutes a game, Davis put up 13 points and 8 boards. He will be a constant all-star.

Ryan Anderson A

Arguably the best shooting 4 in the game. I love how he wants to take the ''big shots'' late in games.


Robin Lopez D+

Vasquez: B
-Started great, developed into a turnover machine

Roberts: A-
-Obviously an incredible story for an undrafted free agent and really shined when given a chance to play a lot of minutes

Gordon: C-
-Looked great for a month, but then just kept getting worse.

Rivers: D+
-Started as an F, but showed a ton of promise and if not for the injury, he could've earn his way up to a B

Aminu: C+
-Great energy and rebounding. Still needs lots of development on his scoring game

MIller: B
-Great talent off the bench and an excellent 2nd round find

Davis: A+
-Really showed great understanding of the game at the end of the season and can finish any ball near the rim

Anderson: B+
-Started the season insanely well, but his shooting started to fade. Hope it's just the team's play that contributed to that.

Lopez: C+
-Look good in spurts, but since the Lakers game I can't stand the sight of him. He's fine with me in a much smaller role

ETA: Smiht: A
-I just love what he brings: an offensive threat, a rebounder, hustle and toughness. Also, he's a

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tgr4ever

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Eric Gordon D-
No explanation needed.

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At least one person in this thread was paying attention

My overall grades will be absolute. Nothing to do with previous expectations.

PG:

Grevis Vasquez

I like him more than most. That doesn't mean I think he's an All-Star. That said, he was probably our best, most consistent player this year, which has to be taken with a teaspoon of salt. I want to see him stick around for his leadership qualities on a young team and his value. I do want to see another good, young guard to compete with him. Maybe we see enough improvement from Rivers to ride it out at PG and upgrade elsewhere. I think Rivers could be that D we need at the point in situations.

Overall B

Brian Roberts

It's like we saw two totally players in him at different times. He looked really good in his couple of starts, but was also extremely frustrating to watch at times. I think he grew a lot as a player this year as far as learning to run half court sets. He just has physical limitations to overcome.

Overall C

SG

Eric Gordon

I don't even want to talk about it

Overall C

Austin Rivers


I agree with what you said about him being thrown to the wolves. Not only that, but losing Gordon meant the move to PG was delayed. I really want to see how he does in year 2, especially defending the point. I think he and Vasquez could be a solid bridge for the next couple of years

Overall Incomplete

Roger Mason

Mason was way better than I expected, but as well as he performed, he just didn't see minutes as the coaching staff really forced the youth movement. I have a lot of respect for the way he handled himself.

Overall C+

SF

Al-Farouq Aminu

If this guy played with a killer instinct, he could be a damn good player, but he doesn't. He often shells up when he has any adversity and it just becomes a downward spiral. His defensive rebounding and length in the zone are undeniable. Given the new ICB trajectory on his jump shot, that tells me he at least tried to work on it last offseason. I'd like to bring him back as a rotation SF/PF for a couple million per, but we'll see.

Overall C-

Darius Miller

Very limited minutes make it very hard to judge, but there were times where he looked really solid. He is coming from 4 years of college, so he should me a little more mentally advanced, but it was nice seeing him holding his own against some decent SGs and SFs. If he continues working on his defense and can stay tenacious combined with that smooth stroke from beyond the arc, he could work his way into a Bruce Bowen type of player.

Overall Incomplete

PF

Anthony Davis

The injuries were a bit concerning, but nothing too serious thankfully. He did have a few stretches where focus were an issue, but he's a kid. I think he's everything we expected and more at this point. His offense was way ahead of my wildest expectations. I hope he works on his spot ups this summer, which should make him damn near unstoppable. Try to guard him at 16 feet and he'll own you. He needs to do a better job of recognizing defenders drawing charges, but that's just him trying to posterize people. I can handle it.

Overall A

Ryan Anderson

He went through some cold streaks that really sapped our abilities, but like when any of our big 4 had a bad game, we just didn't have any depth to cover for it. He is definitely a niche player with limited defensive abilities (damn near our entire roster fits this description), but his shooting for a guy his height is impressive. My hope is that AD will pressure him in practice so that he becomes more comfortable getting off a shot with a defender in his pocket (he has the height to do it, but he seems to get distracted by the defender).

Overall B+

C

Robin Lopez

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Solid season but i feel he needs to be a backup. We would benefit from a better defensive C imo

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I think the fact that he and Gravy shared a weakness in the pick and roll kind of exposed both of them worse.

Overall C-

Jason Smith

Hard to grade him with all of the injuries he had to try to play through. He was a warrior about it. We all love the guy, but I think he's probably a low-minute bench player on any good Pelicans team we'll see.

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Lopez and Gordon get the same grade?

Lopez exceeded expectations. Gordon was a huge loser.

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If Lopez is average, he's exceeded expectations. If Gordon is average, people call him a "huge loser." It's a simply matter of objectivity. The outcome of the season is completely independent of any expectation any of us had going into it. Sure, we want to be vindicated in our assumptions, but they were still our assumptions.

If you want to discuss how they played with regards to expectations, I think that's more of a discussion around the coaching staff/front office.

EG solid last month is probably what brought his grade up a bit for me.

He really needs to stay aggressive next year if he sticks around and he'll be fine.

Mason I thought did what he did well

I wonder if we take a shot on a morrow type player?

Wouldn't cost much more and can play the 2/3

PG

Greivis Vasquez

He was much better than any of us expected this year. He was by far the most consistent player on our team this year and a lot of the time, he seemed to be the only player who showed any leadership this year. I'll be sad to see him go, but he proved that he's a legit NBA PG this year. He's become a very valuable trade asset and I think we'll use him as such. A-

Brian Roberts

I didn't know what to expect out of Roberts this year, but he proved to me that he can be a solid player off the bench in this league. I see no reason why we don't pick up his team option for next season and I think he'll be a Janero Pargo type player for us down the road as a combo guard off the bench. He can be a very solid scorer, but can also make some great passes, as we saw in the first game that he started and had 18 assists. B

SG

Eric Gordon

Disappointment of the year is an understatement. Starting with the "my heart is in Phoenix," to the injury, to his disinterested attitude at times, this guy did nothing to deserve the max contract that we gave him. At times this year, he showed the potential of the scorer that he could be and got to the basket well. But at other times, he was completely out of it on big offensive possessions (keep thinking of the Lakers game), disappeared on the defensive end, or settled for long jumpshots instead of driving to the basket or looking from help from his teammates. He is supposed to be our closer, but disappeared game after game in the 2nd half.

I could go on and on, but he better have an incredible offseason and come back 100%, both mentally and physically to start next season. D-

Austin Rivers

I actually liked Rivers more than most on here. We knew it was going to be a tough rookie season for him, I just don't think that we expected it to start as bad as it did. Before he got hurt, he was beginning to figure out what type of player he'll be in this league and was starting to get much better. I really wish we'd have gotten to see him finish the season. He needs to work on FT shooting and finishing at the rim over the off-season, but I still think he'll be a solid combo guard down the road. C-

Roger Mason

Didn't get to see him as much as some would have liked because of the emphasis on playing younger players, but he did well in the minutes that he played. I wouldn't mind keeping him around to have a veteran player to help out the younger players on this team. C+

SF

Al-Farouq Aminu

This guy will never be a complete player, but this season, he came to that realization and focused on the things he did well and got better at them. He's a good defender and rebounder, and he'll find someone looking for that type of player coming off the bench, even if its not for us. His biggest problem this year was being forced to play more minutes than he should. Either way, it was nice to see him figure out his role this year. C+

Darius Miller

Small sample size, but in the few minutes that we saw him, he looked like he might be a solid 2nd round pick. Seemed to shoot the ball well, but can still work on other things, like rebounding and defense. I think we'll pick up his team option and will see him get much more time off the bench next year. Keep in mind, that this grade is based off of a small sample size. C

Xavier Henry

Shouldn't be on an NBA team, at least not on a full time roster. That being said, he did a hell of a lot in the last few games fighting for a spot on a team next year. D

PF

Anthony Davis

I don't think we could have expected more out of him this season. We found out that he's much better on the offensive end than we thought, and his athleticism will make him an an elite big man in the NBA. He still needs to add some more weight to compete with some of the bigger guys in the league, but he'll be an all-star for the Pelicans, no doubt. A

Ryan Anderson

Was pretty streaky throughout the year, but when he was on, we won games. We were forced to rely on him too much, and hopefully with added depth next year, he won't be pressured to shoot too much when he's in. I think he'll be a great 6th man and a team leader down the road.

He also seems to be a really great guy off the court. He is a very likable guy, and seems like a guy that will do anything to help the Pelicans organization and the city of New Orleans. B+

Jason Smith

Tough season for him. He played banged up for a good part of the season, and then got knocked out of the last month or so. That really hurt our team because I think he'd have been our best leader on the court this year. I'd love to see him back at full strength next year. He's the only player that's been on this team for more than two years, and I feel like we need a player like that to be a leader on this team. C+

C

Robin Lopez

I think that he was better than we thought he'd be this year. Some games he'd look like an all star for us, but others he'd look like a scrub. His shot looks horrible, but it works. He's got his flaws, but in a front court dominated by Davis and Anderson, I think we can live with them if we decide not to use him as a trade piece. C+