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Did You Know That… The resumed season will provide Pelicans with valuable big-game experience?

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For the vast majority of current New Orleans Pelicans players, it’s been a few years since they competed in high-stakes, pressure-filled basketball games. Jahlil Okafor and Josh Hart captured championships in 2015 and ’16, but those were in college for Duke and Villanova, respectively. Other Pelicans, such as Brandon Ingram, Lonzo Ball and Frank Jackson, advanced during “March Madness,” but their NBA teams have not yet been part of a heated postseason race.

As a result, it may be difficult to measure the enormous positive long-term impact of New Orleans participating in the resumption of the league’s 2019-20 season. Two-thirds of the Pelicans’ roster has never appeared in the NBA playoffs, with JJ Redick (110 career postseason games) the only member of the squad boasting extensive experience. Derrick Favors and Jrue Holiday are next in line at 31 and 30 career playoff games, respectively. By comparison, those are similar career totals to ultra-young Memphis’ frontcourt combination of Jonas Valanciunas (43 playoff games, all with Toronto) and Kyle Anderson (30, San Antonio).

New Orleans (28-36) is eager to see its own large complement of youngsters get the opportunity to perform under the spotlight of an eight-game sprint, with every outcome likely having major ramifications. The Pelicans have a combined 201 games of NBA playoff experience on their roster; to increase that number in August, they’ll need to perform well during the “seeding games” portion of competition, then prevail in an 8/9 play-in round. That would mean up to 10 pressure-packed games, before hopefully suiting up for the ’20 Western Conference playoffs (likely opponent: the top-seeded Lakers).

“We’re certainly going to get meaningful games, and I think we’ll get them against tougher opponents than maybe we had left on the (the team’s planned 82-game) schedule,” Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations David Griffin said in May, referencing a reconfigured slate. “We’ll just be grateful to take part in anything going forward, because our young kids need that challenge of meaningful games.”

“This is beneficial for young teams,” Pelicans TV analyst Antonio Daniels said of the value of this summer’s unique game competition. “You have guys on this roster who do not have playoff experience. So it may not pay dividends today, it may not pay dividends tomorrow, but a year from now, when we’re looking back on these eight-plus games that they played, it will pay dividends in the future, I promise you that.”

In chart form, here is the list of Pelicans players with and without NBA postseason experience, underlining the value of the team’s participation in games this summer:

Pelicans players with playoff experience (team and postseason year)

JJ Redick (Orl 2007; Orl 2008; Orl 2009; Orl 2010; Orl 2011; Orl 2012; Mil 2013; LAC 2014; LAC 2015; LAC 2016; LAC 2017; Phi 2018; Phi 2019) … 110 career games, 70 starts, 10.9 ppg

Derrick Favors (Uta 2012; Uta 2017; Uta 2018; Uta 2019) … 31 career games, 14 starts, 9.4 ppg

Jrue Holiday (Phi 2011; Phi 2012; NOP 2015; NOP 2018) … 30 career games, 27 starts, 17.0 ppg

E’Twaun Moore (Bos 2012; Chi 2015; NOP 2018) … 21 career games, 9 starts, 5.3 ppg

Darius Miller (NOP 2018) … 9 career games, 0 starts, 4.8 ppg

Totals: 201 career games, 120 starts (without Redick + Favors, 60 career games, 36 starts)

Pelicans players who’ve advanced past first round of playoffs

JJ Redick (Orl 2008 East semifinals; Orl 2009 NBA Finals; Orl 2010 East finals; LAC 2014 West semifinals; LAC 2015 semifinals; Phi 2018 East semifinals; Phi 2019 East semifinals)

Derrick Favors (Uta 2017 West semfinals; Uta 2018 West semifinals)

Jrue Holiday (Phi 2012 East semifinals; NOP 2018 West semifinals)

E’Twaun Moore (Bos 2012 East finals; Chi 2015 East semifinals; NOP 2018 West semifinals)

Darius Miller (NOP 2018 West semifinals)

No career playoff games

Lakers 2019 trade additions

Brandon Ingram, Lonzo Ball, Josh Hart

Veterans from various teams

Jahlil Okafor

Second-year Pelicans

Frank Jackson, Kenrich Williams

NBA rookies

Zion Williamson, Jaxson Hayes, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Nicolo Melli

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