The New Orleans Pelicans’ front office finally got to see what the team looked like when its “Big 3” shared the court.
Zion Williamson, Brandon Ingram and CJ McCollum were limited to 10 games together in their first two years as teammates. This season, the three of them played 737 minutes together across 43 games. The Pelicans got outscored by 25 points in their minutes.
The Pelicans had a successful regular season, winning 49 games. But that occurred in spite of the fit among their three $30-million-a year players — not because of it.
This summer, the Pelicans must make a decision if they want to move forward with all of them under contract. Collectively, Williamson, Ingram and McCollum are owed $106 million next season.
“You certainly don’t come at this as we are going to build around one of them,” executive vice president of basketball operations David Griffin said. “I think certainly any time two of the three were on the court, we won those minutes. When three of them were on the court, we tended not to. That has a lot to do with what we support them with.
“Giving them the ancillary pieces that help them thrive. Knowing now, because we have seen the group enough, I think we will be able to address some of that. But certainly we have to be open to a lot of different things.”
Williamson has four years left on his contract. McCollum has two. Ingram has one.
Williamson is the most talented player on the roster, and as the season progressed, he took what teammates described as a more professional approach. Williamson got in noticeably better shape after the Pelicans’ In-Season Tournament loss to the Los Angeles Lakers in December. He played in a career-high 70 games before he went down with a right hamstring injury in the play-in tournament.
“Obviously, getting him to play a career-high number of games was exciting for us,” Griffin said. “And when I said getting to — him doing the work to get to that point was exciting. He did a remarkable job this year. I think coming out of the In-Season Tournament, he had seen a lot of what he needed to do better. He really bought into that.”
Finding the right fit at center next to Williamson has been tricky. The Pelicans already have cycled through three options. Derrick Favors was New Orleans’ starting center during Williamson’s rookie season. Steven Adams occupied that spot in Williamson’s second year. For the last three years, Williamson has suited up alongside Jonas Valanciunas.
The 31-year-old Valanciunas is an unrestricted free agent this summer. He has evolved over his career to take a handful of 3s per game, but at his core, he is an interior masher. Valanciunas’ minutes waned as this season went along.
If the Pelicans bring in another starting center, expect them to target someone who is more mobile than Valanciunas on defense, or someone who takes and makes 3s at a higher clip than the Lithuanian.
Griffin also could alter his team’s makeup at guard. The Pelicans have taken a point guard-by-committee approach over the past three years. Williamson has often been their best initiator.
“I think it’s less about the specific of having a pure point guard and more about overall basketball intelligence and approach to the game,” Griffin said. “(Oklahoma City’s) Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is a score-first point guard. I don’t think I would call him a pure point guard. But they are getting the best, most efficient look on a regular basis with the way they are running their stuff.
"It can be predicated on one individual, and it can be predicated on system. Yes, I would like more basketball I.Q., for sure.”
The starting lineup the Pelicans rolled out on opening night in October — featuring McCollum, Herb Jones, Ingram, Williamson and Valanciunas — shared the floor for a substantial amount of time this season. In the unit's 421 minutes together, the Pelicans got outscored by 1.1 points per 100 possessions. According to Cleaning the Glass, the Pelicans’ starters were the sixth-worst five-man lineup out of the 28 lineups across the NBA that played at least 500 possessions together.
Griffin acknowledged that some of the pieces must change.
“In the past, we have always erred on the side of continuity,” Griffin said. “Our takeaway has always been, 'Let’s see this group healthy.' I think we’ve seen it enough. I think we had some really, really good opportunities to see Zion play a career-high in games. I think we saw it for enough segments in time to understand we have a lot of work to do.
"And, again, because it is a historically good Western Conference, there are teams that didn’t make the playoffs that are going to get radically better this offseason. We need to do the same. I think you will see a real sense of urgency from all of us to do that.”
