It’s been a long time coming, but the first New Orleans Pelicans mailbag of the season is finally here.
It might be a struggle for the Pels to keep their players on the floor these days, but that won’t stop us from answering some of the questions you have about this team’s present and future.
Let’s jump right into it.
(Some questions have been edited for clarity and length.)
Do you get any sense that Willie Green’s job is in jeopardy? Beyond the injuries, this team often doesn’t play hard. And why can they never run a play on offense? — Bill C.
Outside of the injuries, this seems to be the main topic of discussion for many Pelicans fans in recent weeks. It’s not surprising, considering how the season has started for a team that came into the year with legitimate hopes of winning 50-plus games.
As frustrating as it may sound, it’s hard to feel like Green’s job is in danger when he’s being asked to win games with Brandon Boston Jr., Jeremiah Robinson-Earl and Javonte Green in the starting lineup. Have there been a few games that slipped away this season that Green could’ve done more to salvage? Perhaps. I wrote on Wednesday about his reluctance to take timeouts at the end of the losses to the Los Angeles Lakers and Brooklyn Nets that might come back to bite this team.
Considering how tough the schedule has been lately, anyone expecting this group to be playing .500 ball with Brandon Ingram and a bunch of two-way guys has to be more realistic.
Are there areas where Green needs to improve as an in-game coach? Absolutely.
What matters more is that CJ McCollum, Jordan Hawkins and Herb Jones all have a pretty good chance of being back on the floor before the end of the month. Dejounte Murray will also be back in the mix within the next couple weeks.
Once the Pelicans start looking like a real NBA team again, the spotlight on Green will be extremely bright. If he can’t get things turned around, then he’ll deserve the harsh criticism. Some of the Pelicans’ struggles in close games must be a thing of the past. Every win will make a huge difference the rest of the way.
But until some of the regular rotation guys are back on the floor, it’s hard to put much blame at Green’s feet.
Shouldn’t the Pels be tanking given the injuries? — Phil T.
With every loss the Pels suffer, the calls to “Sag for Flagg” or “Brace for Ace” will get louder. The appeal of having a high pick in this year’s draft is extremely high considering the talent at the top of the board, led by Duke’s Cooper Flagg and Rutgers’ Ace Bailey. The easiest path to adding a superstar will always be selecting one at the top of the draft.
But as bad as their record is now, it’s hard for me to see the Pelicans remaining bad enough to have one of the three or four worst records in the league by the end of the season.
Like I said above, McCollum, Hawkins, Jones and Murray are all expected to be back in the lineup relatively soon. With that much talent on the perimeter, along with Ingram and Trey Murphy III, the Pelicans will have enough to compete every night.
Not to mention, there won’t be much of an appetite for taking a step back when the head coach and the lead executive, David Griffin, are already getting some heat from the fan base. Plus, Murray, Murphy, Jones and Zion Williamson are locked in with long-term contracts. Even if they finally pull the plug and ship Ingram to another team, the Pels would still have enough to win.
The most important thing for this team the rest of the way will be getting Murray, Murphy, Jones and Williamson on the court together as much as possible and seeing what that core looks like on both ends of the floor. How do you find the other pieces to bring the best out of those four guys? That’s where the future of the team lies.
Besides, ask the Detroit Pistons how fun it is to watch a team tank all season and not end up with a top-3 pick.
Are all of the soft-tissue injuries, e.g., hamstring strains, just bad luck or are they a symptom of poor conditioning or poor performance by the training staff? — Anonymous
First off, I’m not a doctor, so I’m a terrible person to ask these kinds of questions.
However, there are different kinds of soft-tissue injuries, and just because one team has two or three guys dealing with hamstring injuries at the same time doesn’t mean all of them are out of shape or that the medical staff is terrible.
It’s easy to point at Williamson and say his hamstring injury is because he’s out of shape, but Murphy suffered a pretty severe hamstring strain on the second day of training camp. Is anyone saying his injury was a result of being out of shape?
Sometimes, injuries do tell a bigger story about how a medical staff is working or how much a player is taking care of their body. And there are also times when injuries are just bad luck.
The one area of concern that I find hard to overlook is when a player starts suffering repeated soft-tissue injuries to the same part of the body. Murphy hasn’t dealt with hamstring injuries much during his time in the league. But Williamson had issues with both of his hamstrings this season, and he was forced to miss the playoffs last season after suffering a hamstring injury in the Play-In Tournament against the Lakers. He also missed four months of the 2022-23 season because of hamstring issues.
This is where it’s fair to start asking some serious questions: What’s been done to address these hamstring problems? How much added treatment is being put in place to make sure these problems won’t continue? Is there a common issue that’s been the cause behind these injuries?
I don’t have a problem chalking up Murray’s broken thumb or Jones’ shoulder injury to bad luck. But Williamson’s hamstrings and the work being done to make sure they won’t become an issue again is something that both he and the team have to address.
Will, where do you think Brandon Boston Jr. will be slotted once the regulars come back? He’s done a fabulous job during this time. — Jim C.
There’s no doubt Boston has earned a spot in the regular rotation once everyone is back. He’s proven he can knock down 3s as a catch-and-shoot guy or off the dribble. He can make plays with the ball in the open court. And he moves with confidence.
If we’re looking at what the rotation will be once most of the guys are back, but Williamson and Alvarado are still out, I’d say the starters will be Murray, McCollum, Jones, Ingram and Yves Missi. That leaves Murphy, Javonte Green, Robinson-Earl and Boston as the top reserves.
If we had to chop the rotation down to eight guys, I’d still keep Boston in over Green. This team’s need for outside shooters is too important. I think it’ll get very interesting if Boston keeps playing well up until it’s time for Alvarado to come back.
As much as I like the idea of having a backup point guard with Boston’s size and shooting, the energy Alvarado brings on defense is a crucial part of this team’s identity. His feel for playing in the passing lanes and creating turnovers is such a rare asset. I’d probably play Alvarado over Boston if push came to shove, but Boston will have some time over the next few weeks to shift my opinion — and the coaching staff’s.
Does the front office want to stick with Missi all year, or trade for a starting center until Missi’s ready? — Autumn C.
Missi’s play has been one of the few reasons to be excited about what’s going on with the Pelicans lately. I think he’s done enough to earn a chance to hold down the starting center spot the rest of the season.
Once most of the team is healthy again, I wouldn’t be surprised if Green finishes a few games with Robinson-Earl or Jones at center so it’ll be easier for them to space the floor and switch everything on defense.
Should Yves Missi be the Pelicans’ starting center for the rest of the year? (Alika Jenner/Getty Images)
Still, Missi has proven he can bring a ton of value as a lob threat, an offensive rebounder and an energy guy. Life will be a lot easier for him once he gets to play with guards who can create easy looks for him again.
If Ingram ends up getting moved before the trade deadline, I wouldn’t be surprised if a veteran center is included in that deal to add some depth in the frontcourt. Regardless, Missi deserves an opportunity to show what he can do as a full-time starter with some of the regulars. The best-case scenario for this team is if they can go into the offseason and feel pretty good about Missi as the starting center going into 2025-26. With the financial crunch the Pels will be working around, having a starting big man on a rookie-scale contract will make building out the rest of the roster a lot easier.
I’d also add that giving out assets to grab another veteran center doesn’t make sense when this team still has so much work to do to get back in the playoff race. Giving up any real assets with the hopes of saving this season would be extremely short-sighted.
Do you think the Pelicans regret not keeping the Lakers pick last year? — Krishazure
Although Dalton Knecht would be a fantastic fit in New Orleans, considering how tight the financial crunch was for this team last summer, it would’ve been really difficult for them to add another $3.8 million in guaranteed money to this year’s books. Maybe they could’ve used that first-rounder to make another deal, but we also have to remember that most teams and experts were down on last year’s draft.
The more sensible move was to bet on a potential Lakers collapse in 2025 (which looks unlikely now, but was hardly impossible to envision) or to have another pick in a 2025 draft that looks better and deeper.
For the folks who are into tanking for one of the top guys in this year’s draft, one way to move up and potentially get a top-8 pick next summer is by potentially packaging a Pels pick that’s better than expected along with the extra Lakers pick New Orleans still has in its back pocket.
At the very least, Pels fans can be happy that drafting Missi at No. 21 last summer looks like a success.
(Top photo: Sean Gardner / Getty Images)
