NBA Season Preview 2019-20: The 5 biggest questions for the New Orleans Pelicans

In preparation for the upcoming 2019-20 NBA season, it’s time to take a look at five critical questions for the New Orleans Pelicans.

1. Who will lead the Pelicans in scoring this season?

Jrue Holiday, if new Pelicans executive vice president David Griffin is to be believed.

While Griffin has repeatedly attempted to tamp down hype for No. 1 overall pick Zion Williamson, he’s done the exact opposite with Holiday.

“This is Jrue Holiday’s team,” he told reporters on draft night. “Zion is going to be learning how to win at a really high level. At some point, if there is a time that the baton gets passed in terms of who is expected to carry us to win games, it will. That is not now.”

Griffin conveyed a similar message to Holiday upon being hired in April, according to Haley O’Shaughnessy of The Ringer.

“I think you’re the most underrated player in the league,” he told Holiday. “And you can either stay that, or you can become that dude. I want you to want to be that dude.”

Holiday was third on the team in scoring last year with 21.2 points per game, but the two leading scorers — Anthony Davis and Julius Randle — are now with the Los Angeles Lakers and New York Knicks, respectively. During the 965 minutes Holiday played last season without Davis, he averaged 23.5 points on 47.2 percent shooting on a per-36-minute basis, according to PBPStats.com.

Holiday will have to balance feeding Williamson, Brandon Ingram, Lonzo Ball, JJ Redick and Derrick Favors (among others) with dialing up his own aggressiveness as a scorer. But it’s clear that Griffin and head coach Alvin Gentry plan on turning the keys to the offense over to Holiday in the wake of Davis’ departure.

2. Who should lead the Pelicans in scoring this season?

Although Williamson might be the sexy answer here, the right answer is Holiday.

Most No. 1 overall picks end up on terrible teams that allow them to begin stat-padding from day one. That isn’t the case for Williamson, who’s joining a Pelicans team that harbors legitimate playoff aspirations this season, even in the brutally loaded Western Conference.

On draft night, Griffin told reporters that he didn’t view Williamson as an immediate savior.

“Don’t write this like he is here to save this franchise,” he said. “He is not. He is here to join this family.”

After averaging an eye-popping 22.6 points on 68.0 percent shooting, 8.9 rebounds, 2.1 assists, 2.1 steals and 1.8 blocks during his lone season with the Duke Blue Devils, Williamson enters the NBA as perhaps the most-hyped prospect since Davis. However, it’s worth remembering that Davis wasn’t an immediate All-Star upon joining the NBA, either.

As a rookie, Davis averaged only 13.5 points on 51.6 percent shooting, 8.2 rebounds, 1.8 blocks, 1.2 steals and 1.0 assists in 28.8 minutes per game, and he was competing for touches with the likes of Eric Gordon, Ryan Anderson and Greivis Vasquez. The 2019-20 Pelicans have far more mouths to feed on offense.

Williamson should provide no shortage of SportsCenter-worthy transition dunks as a rookie, but the Pelicans aren’t going to shoehorn him into a primary-scorer role right away. Holiday should shoulder that load until Williamson has acclimated to the NBA.

3. What happens the first time the Lakers come to town?

Anthony Davis gets booed every time he touches the ball. Rob Pelinka can’t set foot in the arena in fear of Gayle Benson disemboweling him. And Lonzo hits a game-winning 3-pointer in LeBron James‘ face as the ultimate middle-finger salute to the four-time MVP, who seemed to quickly sour on his younger teammates last season.

4. Lonzo Ball shoots over or under 35 percent on 3-pointers this season?

Let’s stay positive and say slightly over.

Being able to play off the ball more alongside Holiday should allow Ball to take more catch-and-shoot 3s and fewer pull-ups. He was slightly more efficient on pull-up triples compared to catch-and-shoots last season, but the inverse was true during his rookie campaign. (And in general, catch-and-shoot attempts tend to be more efficient than pull-ups.)

More importantly, his shooting form looks better.

https://twitter.com/PelicansNBA/status/1179114778196942855

“If you’re even halfway familiar will Ball’s old shot, you’ll notice right away how he’s releasing the ball from a much more straight-on position, square with his forehead, rather than bringing it completely across his body and releasing from the extreme left position for which he’s become known,” CBS Sports’ Brad Botkin wrote.

If that improved stroke carries over to live-action, Ball should continue his upward trajectory as a long-range shooter. After burying only 30.5 percent of 3-point attempts as a rookie, he drilled 32.9 percent this past season.

Another 2 percentage-point jump isn’t out of the question given the Pelicans’ personnel and Ball’s apparently offseason improvement.

5. Are we really thinking the Pelicans are heading for the playoffs?

If they were in the Eastern Conference, almost certainly.

Unfortunately, they’re in the West.

Barring catastrophic injuries, the Los Angeles Clippers, Los Angeles Lakers, Houston Rockets, Denver Nuggets and Utah Jazz should all have playoff spots locked up. The Golden State Warriors and Portland Trail Blazers likely aren’t far behind.

Even if one or two of those teams fall out of the playoff race, that leaves a handful of spots for the Pelicans, San Antonio Spurs, Oklahoma City Thunder, Sacramento Kings, Dallas Mavericks and Minnesota Timberwolves. Those aren’t great odds!

The one thing the Pelicans do have in their favor — you know, other than a shockingly deep reservoir of talent — is Redick, who has yet to miss the playoffs in his 13-year NBA career. He wasn’t shy about reminding Williamson of that, either.

“First real conversation with Zion was a couple of weeks ago,” Redick told reporters during the Pelicans’ media day. “We got to chat for 20 minutes or so after one of the workouts. And the last thing I said to him, I said, “Look, man, don’t f–k this up for me.”

Williamson’s response? “JJ, why are you telling me? I’m just a rookie!”

All good things must eventually come to an end, and Redick’s playoff streak appears to be in legitimate danger this season. But considering how fun the Pelicans should be to watch with Williamson, Ball and Holiday running fastbreaks, we can only hope they force their way into the playoff picture.

Unless otherwise noted, all stats via NBA.com or Basketball-Reference. All salary information via Early Bird Rights.

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