NBA analysts and fans spend significant time in the weeks leading up to each regular season assessing how offseason roster changes may benefit or hurt the league’s 30 teams, but perhaps the most difficult thing to predict is this: How much will a club improve based purely on progress made by players who were already on the roster?
New Orleans (30-42 last season) made several major additions last month, including trading for veterans Steven Adams and Eric Bledsoe, but it’s possible internal improvements will also have a major impact on whether the Pelicans reach the Western Conference playoffs. Zion Williamson, Jaxson Hayes and Nickeil Alexander-Walker were all first-round draft picks a year ago, while players such as Brandon Ingram, Lonzo Ball and Josh Hart are all also entering their second seasons in the Big Easy, now much more familiar with teammates and their Crescent City surroundings.
As the Pelicans prepared to travel to Tampa following Tuesday’s practice, Williamson noted that one reason he’s excited for 2020-21 to begin is that he feels more acclimated to the professional level. He’s also far removed from the October 2019 knee surgery that sidetracked him for 40-plus games to begin his rookie NBA season.
“I definitely feel more comfortable this year than I did last year,” the 20-year-old said. “Last year I felt like there was a lag, and (I was) always trying to recover from the surgery, and trying to get back into shape and trying to get adjusted to the NBA. There was a lot to figure out. This year, there is a clean slate and I’m ready to go.”
For Ball – Williamson’s frequent partner on highlight-reel alley oops, often from halfcourt and beyond – he similarly was able to experience a more normal lead-up to this season. During the 2019 offseason, Ball was coming off an injury that short-circuited the latter portion of his final season with the Lakers. Ingram also missed a large chunk of games at the end of that ’18-19 campaign in L.A.
Williamson indicated Tuesday that he’s enjoyed watching how Ball has looked during this preseason, capped by the point guard’s confident, 19-point, five-rebound, eight-assist performance Friday vs. Milwaukee.
“You can just see it in him, in practice and in the preseason,” Williamson said of Ball. “He’s just a lot more comfortable. He had an offseason to fine-tune the things he wanted to work on. Him being a lot more comfortable, his game really increased from that.”
New Orleans practiced for the final time Tuesday prior to Wednesday’s opener against an accomplished Toronto team, the second straight season that the Pelicans have faced the Raptors in Game 1. Williamson said Tuesday that New Orleans players are eager to get started, but understand that they have much more progress to make, particularly after a compressed span of time to prepare.
“We’re very excited,” Williamson said. “Are we where we want to be right now? Obviously not, because we just came together. But I think that’s good for us, because we have a lot of room for improvement. As the season goes on, we’re going to figure each other out. Hopefully as we’re doing that, we get those wins that we need. All I can say is we’re going to play hard, work hard and we’ll figure it out.”
