New Orleans at Charlotte
Time: 6 PM CT (NBA LP)
Spread: CHA -2.5
Total: 203
Betting odds c/o 5dimes
Many seemed ready to bill the New Orleans Pelicans instant contenders after acquiring DeMarcus Cousins before the 2017 NBA trade deadline.
That has hardly happened.
The Pelicans have lost their past two outings and six of its past 10 to fall to 25-40 on the season, with playoff hopes quickly vanishing.
New Orleans trails the No. 8 Denver Nuggets by five games, and is given less than a 1 percent chance of making the postseason according to projections at Five-Thirty-Eight. New Orleans will travel to face the Charlotte Hornets as 2.5 point underdogs in NBA action on League Pass at 6 PM (CT) tonight.
New Orleans
The Pelicans have not been able to get it right early on in this “Boogie-Brow” era, but perhaps this was pretty foreseeable. Outside of Cousins, Anthony Davis and point guard Jrue Holiday, there is precious little talent on the roster. It has rendered head coach Alvin Gentry starting E’Twaun Moore and Solomon Hill with the talented trio.
Both are barely starter-caliber NBA players, and perhaps would start on less than a half dozen teams other than the Pelicans. The lack of court spacing and size has hurt New Orleans on both ends, and until this team adds the proper complementary pieces, it will be something of a pretender with (arguably) the league’s best players at the 4/5 positions.
And to be sure, Davis and Cousins have both played well, at least offensively. Through his first seven games in New Orleans, Cousins has tallied 22.1 points, 13.4 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 2.43 blocks/steals in 34 minutes a night. He has been good, and his offense has helped the second unit a lot when Gentry leaves him on the floor with the reserves.
Davis shares this responsibility. New Orleans is not talented enough to take both its superstars off the court, and even with both on, Holiday still need to be more aggressive as the team’s only other potent scorer.
Or, at least, he was the team’s only other potent scorer. Adding swingman Jordan Crawford may be a huge move for the Pelicans, after losing trade acquisition Omri Casspi to a season-ending injury in his first game in New Orleans. Crawford scored 29 points in his first two games combined as a Pelican, and he has hit 5 of 11 from three-point range over that span.
While Crawford may not be enough to single-handedly spare New Orleans from a lottery-bound fate, his offense is surely needed with Tyreke Evans and Buddy Hield both departed to Sacramento in the Cousins deal. The Pelicans are a team without depth, without sufficient shooting, but with two superstars in tow that could change rapidly this offseason.
Live NBA odds available here at Maddux Sports!
Charlotte
Charlotte has gone 5-5 over its past 10 SU and is 29-36 on the season, trailing No. 8 Milwaukee by 2.5 games. The Hornets have won 3 of its past 4 games though, and Kemba Walker has returned to form after a rather long slump, a slump which saw him skirt many of his playmaking responsibilities to 2-guard Nicolas Batum.
The Hornets are something of a 2-man team offensively, anyway, with Batum and Walker basically doing far too much. Between Walker’s 23 points and Batum’s 15 points per game, the Hornets have just four other players who are even decent scorers. Yes, Charlotte averages 105 points per game and that is a solid mark, but can it win the postseason should it get there, with just two real offensive weapons?
Frank Kaminsky has been a pleasant surprise and looks to be a career starter at this point. With Cody Zeller missing several weeks due to injury, Kaminsky stepped up and played brilliant ball. He is averaging 11.5 points and 4.7 rebounds per game in 25 minutes a night, and he has been playing smart, heady basketball. Charlotte gets solid play from its other role players like stretch-4 Marvin Williams, and Zeller is an underrated big man, but the Hornets desperately need to add another premier scorer to keep pace with the other offensively loaded teams in the Association.
It may be asking Walker too much to develop in to a 25-plus point per game scorer, given his responsibilities as a playmaker on this team. Of course, playing him off the ball could probably make that happen if Charlotte is unable to obtain a high-usage wing player this offseason to replace the offensively-deficient Michael Kidd-Gilchrist (who has plenty of value as a “three and D” player, but questionable upside as a starter).
Check out our season pick plans to get in on the NBA and NCAA hoops winning in 2016-17!
