Pelicans 2023 Media Day Ushers In Familiar Themes

Time may as well be a flat circle for the Pelicans franchise

Continuity is a funny phrase. It can be marketed as a tremendous strength or be reflected upon as a complete misjudgment. Continuity was certainly the prevailing theme as the Pelicans’ executives took the stage at this year’s iteration of media day. One by one, Trajan Langdon, Willie Green, and David Griffin all took the opportunity to emphasize continuity and the benefits it would bring in the coming season. As they discussed how the team would be able to hit the ground running and how this year they might finally get a chance to look at all of their best players on the court together, I couldn’t help feel like I had heard all of this before. If you feel as I do and are someone who has followed the team for a long time now, it’s because you have indeed heard this before.

Let’s flash back to the 2015-2016 Pelicans season. The team had just celebrated a playoff appearance, albeit a sweep in the first round at the hand of the eventual champions. Nevertheless, the team was young, led by the core of Anthony Davis, Jrue Holiday, Tyreke Evans, Ryan Anderson, and yes even Eric Gordon. Leadership decided the best path forward was to bring in an offensive minded coach but keep the roster largely intact. Beginning to sound familiar?

They would hand out long term deals to Omer Asik, Alexis Ajinca, and Dante Cunningham in an effort to stabilize the roster. The idea behind it was that improved health combined with a needed offensive injection from Alvin Gentry would lead the Pelicans to a more successful season. Unfortunately, the Pelicans would have one of their most injury riddled seasons yet and limp their way to only 30 wins.

Fast forward 8 years and the Pelicans are in a remarkably similar position. They are coming off a solid, yet injury filled season hoping that they can improve by way of health and additions to the coaching staff. “The one thing about continuity when you haven’t had a healthy group,” says Griffin, “is A) you have optimism that when they are healthy they will be good, but B) you know that they interact well and their chemistry is good as a group”.

Griffin is absolutely correct in that regard. The Pelicans did indeed see flashes of high level success when their main guys were all on the court. When together, this is a group worth limit testing. However, therein lies the problem.

With all of the strengths that continuity preserves, the weaknesses carry over as well. The Pelicans do a tremendous job of downplaying the involvement of one Zion Williamson in their future success prospects, but this house of cards relies on Zion being significantly more available than he has been in the past. Moreover, he is not the only player on their roster with frequent availability issues. Brandon Ingram, Larry Nance, and CJ McCollum all have injury histories of their own.

The Pelicans are attempting to mitigate these concerns with the hiring of Amy Atmore as the Director of Rehabilitation, and to their credit, this was given universal praise by the players during Media Day. The 2023 Pelicans have significantly greater investment on the health front than the 2015-16 organization and the hiring of Atmore is an illustration of continued investment in this area. It remains to be seen if the desired results reveal themselves, but the team is certainly trying.

Health is not the only problem the continuity tide washes in. The leadership issues that have plagued the team also tag along like an unwanted friend. Just today Griffin stated, “when you don’t have an alpha number one player, who’s clearly the lynchpin for everything everyday, vocally, you need to get leadership from a lot of different places in the locker room.” He would go on to describe the profound impact of CJ and Larry in the locker and how Cody Zeller might bring more of the same.

I’ve already written about this at length, but we are now entering year 5 of the Zion and Griffin era and the conversations around leadership remain largely the same. Once again to Griffin’s credit, he touched on how Zion may yet be that person, but part of what has held him back from seizing that title is availability. This year will be pivotal in discovering if Zion is indeed that guy and where the limits of this roster lie. But all roads lead back to health. And in that regard, I am very much forward to some discontinuity.

General Media Day Observations

• Both Trajan Landon and David Griffin dismissed tax concerns as the Pelicans enter the season over the luxury tax threshold for the first time in franchise history. Both executives intimated that results would dictate the direction they head in, and their focus is on being the best team they can be. It is of my humble opinion that if this is the team’s stance, then they should seek to make their “buying” move as soon as possible to ensure the greatest amount of time possible with the “best” roster. It takes two to tango so the deals might not be available today, however, waiting until the deadline to act leaves you with effectively one shot to commit to a direction. Making a move today, or soon, can afford you multiple opportunities.

• Speaking of results, the team seems keenly aware that no matter the image they try to put out, results will speak louder. There are not many external expectations by way of media as in years past, however the internal expectations seem very real.

• Trajan Langdon mentioned that Zion has an “edge” about him coming into the season, and I think that may have been an understatement. I have been a part of almost every Zion media availability and he has consistently been a lighthearted and smiling individual. This year the difference was stark. As the media session went on, Zion did come out of his guard at times. To be clear, I am not insinuating any of this is bad - just different.

• Nearly everyone mentioned how good CJ has looked. I am wary of reports coming out of informals - we know what happened with Nashville Jaxson and training camp Nickeil. I do hope for everyone’s sake that CJ sustains a high level of play and is able to enjoy the perks of being a 3rd option.

• Larry Nance Jr. brought up playing through injury last year because he was trying to “send a message”. While he did not elaborate on who that message was for, Nance talked at length about the difference between being “hurt” and being “injured”, and how he wanted to show that he was giving it all by playing while “hurt”. Nance received an injection recently to facilitate healing from sending the “message”, but is slated to be ready for game 1 of the regular season. To me, while admirable, this just further underscores the leadership issues that have plagued this team.

• Dyson Daniels has changed his shooting mechanics once again. Daniels mentioned a few tweaks including changing the release angle, and his grip on the catch. He has been working with Fred Vinson again and hopefully this yields desirable results.

• James Borrego was brought up or asked about in nearly every player’s session. Most of them have already had conversation with him regarding their role and playstyle. The themes appear to be ball movement and up-tempo play. Overall there seems to be a general excitement towards getting to work in the new system.

• Willie Green sort of soft launched the idea of Zion at the 5. They attempted this last year in the slightest of bursts and were +4 in 44 minutes of play. I am not opposed to this experimentation as a way to get the most amount of offense on the court, but I am curious how they manage this without Trey Murphy.

• For the record, I do not believe at all that continuity was plan A. The team had publicly stated goals of addressing rim protection and shooting, and they have fundamentally addressed neither. Instead, I believe the stagnation is a product of their relation to the tax and their increasingly volatile draft assets. I fully believe the goal was to make some moves, and frankly, it still is. Their decision to move the Temple guarantee date and hold onto the Kira Lewis contract are big indicators of this. I believe they are planning to be a tax team and the right deal just hasn’t materialized.

• Just win, baby