Record predictions for every NBA team

New Orleans Pelicans (Projected Record: 44-38)

New Orleans is in the enviable position of having two top-20 talents in DeMarcus Cousins and Anthony Davis. Despite those two birds in the hand, though, the Pelicans have really struggled to put good pieces around their main attractions. Jrue Holiday is a pretty average starting point guard in the league, but he’s often hurt and New Orleans’ management team decided that pairing him with Rajon Rondo would be a good idea. Rondo hasn’t been a plus contributor for a few years now and should Holiday go down, the Pels would be in a tough spot.

That potentiality got a little less tough, though, when New Orleans picked up Jameer Nelson off the scrap heap onto which the Nuggets had mistakenly tossed him. Nelson is a better player than Rondo at this point in their respective careers and he definitely is a better fit with the Pelicans two big lineup, as he provides floor spacing that Rondo just never will. I didn’t have Nelson on the Pelicans roster when I ran these numbers, so it’s possible New Orleans will look slightly better than even these numbers suggest.

Even without pricing in Jameer’s impact, the Pelicans figured to be in good shape to slide into the Western Conference’s eighth seed and to finally take their playoff swing at the Warriors with their dual Goliath setup. Watching Golden State figure out how to handle Cousins and Davis’s unique challenges over the course of a series sounds pretty exciting, here’s hoping we get to see it. (*knocks on wood for Anthony Davis’s health*)