Unlike other teams around the league, the New Orleans Pelicans are not in a position of familiarity in this shortened offseason. With a new coach, new starters and a young team, the Pelicans need every moment available this preseason.
It should come with little surprise, then, Stan Van Gundy intends to treat Monday’s game against the Miami Heat much more closely to a regular season contest than an exhibition game.
“We’ll play guys pretty good minutes,” Van Gundy said after practice on Sunday. “I’d be surprised if I went beyond 10 guys in the game. The starters I would think will be 30 minutes, maybe. Maybe more, maybe less. I haven’t totally mapped it out, but we’re going to play them. We need the time together on the court, and we need the condition.”
Van Gundy said he wouldn’t treat it exactly like a regular season game as the team will not game plan or adjust to the Miami Heat on the night. But with in-game experience necessary and the Pelicans scheduled to play just two preseason contests, Monday’s game will carry more weight than typical.
“It’s definitely not going to be like a regular season game, but the minutes, while they may not be quite like the regular season, it’s not going to be the starters play in the first half and sit down in the second half, either,” Van Gundy said. “A lot of is just we need as much time playing together as we can get. We’re in a whole different situation than some of these teams. The Heat just played together two months ago. They have everybody back, and they’re in the same system they were in a year ago.
“We’re in a whole new system,” he continued. “We need every day we can get, every rep we can get, every minute we can get with our guys and we certainly need the conditioning. We’re going to play guys.”
After Monday’s contest, the Pelicans will be off until Friday when they meet the Bucks. After that, their next contest will be a regular-season matchup on Dec. 23 against the Raptors. It’s a small window for the team to thread in the opening weeks and month of the season but one they will be forced to take head on.