Grantland League Pass Rankings: Pelicans ranked 12th

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N’awlins Pellies

Simmons: Anthony Davis, Anthony Davis, and Anthony Davis. Oh, and Anthony Davis. Did I forget anything?

Lowe: Monty Williams’s suits! Ryan Anderson is back! I wish I enjoyed watching their perimeter players half as much as their big guys. I wish all three of Davis, Anderson, and Omer Asik could play at the same time — and Williams will likely give that at least a token early shot. But something about watching Tyreke Evans and Eric Gordon …

Simmons: Those guys definitely fail the “Would It Be Fun To Play With Him?” test. But Davis, Asik and Jrue Holiday … that’s a pretty nice start. I wish we could bring Don Nelson out of his Hawaii hibernation to coach these guys. There’s a legitimately entertaining style lurking somewhere in here. Let’s just say that I don’t trust Monty Williams to unleash it.

Lowe: I kind of trust him. He runs some funky stuff on offense, even if too much of it results in midrange jumpers. That’s part of the reason it’s good to have Anderson back — he really opens up their playbook. They were a solid offensive team last season, and lights-out when they had all their guys. The defense is the bigger question, though it’s hard to be even below-average with Asik and Brow.

Simmons: Would you trade Nerlens Noel, Elfrid Payton and a 2015 late lottery pick for Holiday and one year of Asik? Because that’s what New Orleans did. Yikes. Then again, in all caps, THIS TEAM HAS ANTHONY DAVIS ON IT! So who cares?

Lowe: There’s a very strong chance those deals will end up on the bad side of the ledger in the aggregate, and they are part of the reason the Pelicans have no depth. The rising cap might help them, since they should have flexibility at some point to add another cog. Small-market teams are nervous about banking enough revenue to spend well over the cap when it gets into the $100 million range down the line, but the TV deal and a revamped revenue-sharing system should empower that sort of spending.

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