zach lowe's NBA tiers

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New Orleans Pelicans

The Pellies have the highest ceiling of this group thanks to our new overlord Anthony Davis and a starry top six that have at least a shot at meshing better than anticipated. The combination of Omer Asik and Davis should shut off the rim for a team that ranked a ghastly 26th in points allowed per possession last season, especially if Monty Williams follows Thibodeau’s Team USA lead in dropping Davis back against the pick-and-roll. But the team’s offense bogged down when Davis shared the floor last season with true centers like Alexis Ajinca and Greg Stiemsma. Asik is a better pick-and-roll player than those two, but he has stone hands and his range extends no further than the length of his arm. Toss in Tyreke Evans, a non-shooter and perhaps the de facto starter at the barren small forward position, and the Pelicans might not have enough spacing in their potential starting five.

New Orleans is frighteningly punchless beyond its top six, but Williams still has a few remedies at hand. He could start Darius Miller at small forward and stick him in the corners, and then have Evans driving like a bulldozer off the bench with Ryan Anderson — a.k.a. the Grenade Launcher. Lineups featuring those two scorched earth last season, and though Anderson is a defensive liability at power forward, the basket should be a no-fly zone as long as either Davis or Asik are nearby to patrol it. Having Jrue Holiday back hounding dudes at the point of attack will be huge, and he’s a good enough shooter to spot up around Evans’s pick-and-rolls when they share the floor.

This is a shallow team that can’t afford bad luck with health, and the two highly paid wings here — Evans and Eric Gordon — have to prove they can blend with everyone else. There are too many questions to slot these guys into the playoffs ahead of more accomplished teams, but there could be something here. There’d better be, considering all the first-round picks they’ve tossed away.

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