Pelicans 'Ice-Cold Shooting' in Summer League Opener
Pelicans basketball has finally returned this season. Though it didn't include the usual roster of Brandon Ingram, Zion Williamson, and CJ McCollum and company, rotational pieces like Trey Murphy III and Dyson Daniels were participating.
Fans hoped to see an improvement in one key area from last season, 3-point shooting. Saturday night's game did nothing to instill confidence in fans looking for a positive trend.
The Pelicans finished 27th in the NBA last season in 3-point shooting. They finished the year shooting just 33% as a team which was down from the 2020 season when they shot 34.8% from beyond the arc. On Saturday night, the Pelicans shot just 12.9%, missing 27 of the 31 attempts on the evening.
Trey Murphy III, who led the team with 23 points, shot just 1/9 from the 3-point line. He was 6/7 on shots inside the arc. Murphy was the only Pelican starter to make a 3-pointer on the night.
It was downright ugly in the second half as the Pelicans managed just nine 3rd quarter points. First-round pick Dyson Daniels went 0/2 from 3 before turning his ankle in the 2nd quarter. X-rays were negative on his ankle injury, and the team will update his status moving forward.
The Pelicans looked like a team playing in their first Summer League game. Add to the fact the game started an hour later than usual, and the Pelicans were all out of sorts.
The Pelicans will hope to get it together when the games count. Recent history has proven only good 3-point shooting teams make it to the promised land of the long NBA season.
In the last five years, only one NBA team, Los Angeles Lakers, made it to the NBA Finals without being in the Top 12 in 3-point shooting. That Lakers team won the championship in an NBA-shortened season due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
During this same period, the Pelicans have finished in the Top 12 once, the same pandemic year the Lakers won the title.
With the return of Zion Williamson this upcoming season, 3-point shooting and spacing will be imperative to the offense's success. Zion will undoubtedly clog the paint and command double and sometimes triple teams.
Players like Trey Murphy III, Herb Jones, Dyson Daniels, and Jose Alvarado must make shots to keep the defenses honest. The NBA is a marathon and not a sprint.
Even though Saturday night's game didn't go as planned, the team is hard at work improving an area of need before the season starts.
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