Let the Pelicans fill their playmaking void with an aggressive move for Dejounte Murray, without emerging as clear winners of the offseason. They simply can’t when the often discussed agreement for Brandon Ingram never materialized, and their big man rotation appears to be by far the worst in the Association (Jonas Valančiūnas and Larry Nance Jr. out; Daniel Theis and rookie Yves Missi in).
Ingram is a talented player, but he lacks the shooting volume, off-ball ability and defensive acumen of an ideal teammate for Zion Williamson. Worse yet, Ingram’s presence potentially blocks the path to significant minutes for Trey Murphy III, who co-coordinates most of Williamson’s slots. And while Ingram and Murphy could theoretically coexist, that could only happen by reducing the role of Herbert Jones, a first-team All-Defensive player coming off the best shooting campaign of his career (49.8/41.8/86.7 shooting).
It’s tempting to bet on such a talented team to figure it out, but the pieces seem to come from several different puzzles, and this middle rotation is a horror. The Pelicans should be in play-in contention, but writing their name in anything other than pencil or erasable ink seems overly ambitious given the depth of the Western Conference.
