Too many question marks to assume Pelicans improve next season
Yahoo Sports NBA contributing writer Tom Haberstroh highlights the injury luck New Orleans received last season despite winning so few games as to why he expects little improvement in the Big Easy next year. Check out the full conversation on "The Big Number" and subscribe on Apple Podcasts , Spotify , YouTube or wherever you listen .
Video Transcript
The last one, this is just about injuries, and injury luck going the other way, just, the variance here.
The New Orleans Pelicans, um- right now, it, it basically brought back the same team as last year.
And man, in terms of, like, getting their key players to play a lot of games last year, Zion Williamson, this is a bet, that I mean, he had 62 games last year, which is nearly twice his average in his NBA career is 35.
Win- 35 games played per season.
And so maybe a little bit of regression in terms of his health next year.
Maybe, maybe he's figured it out, maybe he hasn't.
But then you look at, Derek Queen, Jeremiah Fears, they ba- they missed one game last year, and so they're gonna be a big part of what they do next season.
And they're basically running back a 26-win team.
And I thought James Borrego did a great job with the offense last year, doing a lot better with DeJounte Bur- Murray getting, brought back midway through the season with his Achilles tear.
I just, I don't know.
I just don't see them having as much of injury luck as, going their way as they had last year, and seeing some variance at that level.
And I also think that Trey Murphy being a trade candidate, I also see them maybe deciding to move him and try to bring some longer term assets there.
So I just, I don't know.
I don't feel great about the Pelicans next year
