Season finish: 16-66 Season highlight: Nautilus has to be loving what he saw from the frontcourt duo of Rui Hachimura and Marvin Bagley III. Granted, Bagley only saw 12 games due to injury, but in those games he got nearly 19 PPG and over 14 RPG in 30 MPG. Hachimura likewise was a constant rookie of the year presence, netting nearly 20 PPG in 57 games. A couple of bright spots indeed in an otherwise disastrous season.

Season lowlight: With John Wall out all season, and one of the youngest rosters in the NLL (probably, just at a glance, don’t @ me), the pelicans had to have been licking their chops for the lottery in which they were slotted #1 overall. Instead, cruel fate saw them fall the maximum number of spots to 5, with 4 teams leapfrogging ahead of them. Even in a weak draft like this, a top 2 or even 3 lottery selection can jumpstart a team; instead, the Pelicans then traded the pick for a couple of guys who we’ll touch on later.

Best trade: Pelicans essentially trade Demarre Carroll, Aron Baynes, Garrett Temple, Etwaun Moore, and 2 2nds for Otto Porter and PJ Dozier
I in general am a fan of these types of deals where you trade a bunch of fodder for a better player, and that’s exactly what this is. Boston had eyes on competing I’m sure and needed the depth, and Porter’s massive salary made him a great fit in NO’s ample cap space and away from Boston-land, where Paul George and Russell Westbrook are staying. Though the forward is oft-injured, there is hope that with a new and respected coach in Billy Donovan that his NBA self will show more of what he did last season, and that his NLL self will follow. The 2nd’s are whatever, and none of those players lost will help NO in any meaningful way. The critical point will be if porter does improve, if the Pels will be able to keep him. 

Worst trade: Pelicans send Al Faroq Aminu, the 5th overall pick, and 2 2nds for Jarrett Culver and Nickiel Alexander-Walker
This was the only other trade made this past season and I like it less than the Porter trade. On one hand I get that NO was probably bitter after the hard lottery luck, and perhaps they like culver more than whoever was likely at 5. To his defense, Culver was also just a rookie and showed some flashes - but he also didn’t impress that much in his rookie season. Culver was taken 4th in the NLL, so you essentially traded the 5th and 2 2nds for the 4th after a year. I wouldn’t say that’s worth the depreciation personally, but that’s just me. Regardless, there’s still a lot to find out about both culver and NAW, and if Culver ends up better than Deni Avdija (the player taken with the 5th pick) then Nautilus will look like a genius. But most of the pieces in this deal are still so young, so it’s tough to gauge, but right now I like the deal for Memphis better than the Pelicans.

Free Agents: PG Elfrid Payton, SG/SF Dwayne Bacon, C Caleb Swanigan, PG Josh Gray
Elfrid Payton is the major one here, as although he is not super great he is a solid rotation player and was their starting point guard (was, being that John Wall is set to return). The Pels should have an easy time keeping him as he re-signed with the NBA Knicks. Bacon and Swanigan are both 70 rated filler guys who, while also young, aren’t anything of note, and Josh Gray isn’t even on an NBA team currently. 

Star:
It’s gotta be Hachimura. As a rookie he nearly led the team in PPG while posting solid stats across the board (with only the newly acquired Otto Porter surpassing him--barely.) He did miss some time and only played 57 games, but even so, very impressive for a rookie. Bagley was SO impressive that he’d have been worth a look, if only he hadn’t been so hurt. Let’s hope that sample size translates to a (relatively) full season next year.

Goat:
Despite my earlier endorsement of Elfrid Payton, that is more out of necessity to have a PG than anything else, and he was quite frankly not great for the pels last season. In almost 30 MPG he logged just over 11 PPG, only shot 40% from the field and 23% from 3, and a monstrous 59% from the charity stripe. I’m sure some of that was the team he was having to work with, but those stats are not what you want to see scoring wise. The one good thing here is that he did post a 3+ AST/TO ratio, which is typically viewed as above avg I believe. But still, Payton needs to improve his efficiency.

Draft Grades:
DNMAP, or “Did Not Make A Pick” After trading away the 5th overall pick as mentioned earlier, the pels had no pick to make. Which honestly, if you were choosing a draft in which you didn’t want a high pick, this might’ve been it, but time will tell if the Pels missed out on talent, or wisely skipped it.