At points during the 2019-20 season, the Pelicans looked lost with the rebuild potentially having gone off the tracks. In early December, New Orleans saw itself mired in a 13-game losing streak that dropped them to 6-22 on the season, marking the lowest point of the season.
But as the team got healthy and Zion Williamson joined the fold, the Pelicans have quickly found their footing. Since falling to 16 games under .500 on Dec. 17, New Orleans is 22-14, the sixth-best record in the Western Conference in that span.
On a podcast appearance on the New Orleans Pelicans podcast, Pelicans vice president of basketball operations David Griffin talked about his pleasure in seeing the team continually improve on the season (h/t Fox8).
“There are some wins that you look at and think those are impressive wins. But for the most part, I look at our season and I see such constant growth.
And that’s the thing that excites me most as we’ve learned how to integrate Zion into the flow of the offense and he’s gotten in better shape. The way that he’s started to find himself, the way we’re all working together and seamlessly working together with the ball dominant presence that good says an awful lot about Lonzo and about Brandon Ingram and Jrue Holiday and what their mindset is. They’re about the right things. And I think because of that, we’ve been able to progress rather quickly.
So it certainly makes that you hope that when we do come back, and I believe that will happen, that we can pick up where we left off.”
It can’t be overstated how important the Pelicans’ run since mid-December has been. Instead of being a team that would have likely traded off veteran assets like J.J. Redick, Derrick Favors or potentially even Jrue Holiday, they’re a team that stood pat and made a run at the postseason.
New Orleans had positioned itself as the likely favorite to make the eighth seed given their easy schedule. Unfortunately, there’s a fairly decent chance the decision may be taken out of their hands. Regardless of whether the team makes the postseason, though, they’ve established themselves as one of the best young teams in the league moving forward.