The New Orleans Pelicans have turned themselves into one of the most interesting teams in the entire NBA after making some trades this offseason and with Tyreke Evans, Jrue Holiday, Anthony Davis and Eric Gordon on the roster, the franchise is ready to start competing for a playoff spot for the first time since trading Chris Paul and the Pelicans will open the season against the Indiana Pacers on Wednesday.
The team made some big splashes with trades and bringing over Tyreke Evans from the Sacramento Kings might be the best deal of them all, as he is one of the best young point guards in the game and he was a restricted free agent. Evans comes to the team as they need a solid point guard and he will now be the leader on offense after averaging 15.2 points and 3.5 assists per game last season with the Kings. The team had to part ways with talented center Robin Lopez in the three way deal for Evans, but they made up for it by adding center Greg Stiemsma after he was waived by the Minnesota Timberwolves.
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Stiemsma should add some solid depth to the team after averaging 3.6 points, 3.3 rebounds and 1.3 blocks in about 15 minutes per game during his first two seasons and they also added Anthony Morrow to come off the bench. The Pelicans trade for Evans also snagged the team a talented prospect in Jeff Withey from Portland and general manager Dell Demps said that the team feels that he can develop into a consistent starter in the league.
Withey and Austin Rivers will be playing over the summer in the Las Vegas as Summer League, while Pierre Jackson will also get some work. Rivers had some struggles last season and although the team loves his potential, they made the deals for Holiday and Evans knowing that he isn't quite ready to lead yet. Holiday averaged 17.7 points and eight assists last season and showed he could be a consistent star in the league and the team feels that Evans and Holiday can bring the team back to the postseason.
Al-Farouq Aminu was brought back to the team on a deal and he will get the chance to be the starter at small forward, but even if he doesn't win the job, he is expected to play key minutes for the team at his position. Davis was the number one overall pick last season and as he continues to develop, the Pelicans think he could be one of the best big men in the entire NBA. The team ranked 25th in scoring last season and 14th in points allowed and with the addition of Evans and Holiday as well as Morrow, the scoring is expected to improve.
The Pelicans now look drastically different than they did last season and the team is taking an interesting path to rebuilding, basically forgoing the classic idea of it by making trades. The Pelicans lucked into selecting Nerlens Noel with their number six pick and while he was considered to be talented enough to be taken number one overall, the team decided to flip him to the Sixers for Jrue Holiday, who will provide another scoring threat to go along with Evans and Davis.
