Following the Portland Trail Blazers win over the New Orleans Pelicans, Inside the NBA’s Charles Barkley said the Blazers would have a better record than the Pelicans.
If there’s one thing Inside the NBA on TNT is good for, it’s getting honest takes from basketball experts. Following the Portland Trail Blazers win over the New Orleans Pelicans, the group chatted about the team’s ceiling.
Host Ernie Johnson asked, “With a healthy Anthony Davis, who’s a higher playoff seed? The Pelicans or the Blazers?” (transcript from the Oregonian).
Charles Barkley replied:
"“The Blazers! The Blazers got it all. I worry about their toughness, but they got a better team. Last year was unique. When you get in a seven-game series you got Rondo and Holiday who just kicked those buys’ butts. Davis was himself, but the Blazers are going to have a better record than the Pelicans [this season].”"
As it stands now, the Blazers sit at a 6-2 record while New Orleans is 4-4. The West is going to be gridlocked among eleven teams, and no one is guaranteed to get out.
The Blazers are currently playing good basketball around Damian Lillard. Their big man prospect Zach Collins has also already begun impressing. And placing Evan Turner into a backup point guard role has made him and the second-unit more effective for Portland.
If the Blazers continue playing like this, they should be able to find a spot into the Western Conference playoffs.
The Pelicans are currently floundering. They won their first four games but have dropped just as many since. And it’s probably no coincidence that Anthony Davis has been out recovering from a sprained elbow he suffered in the team’s fourth win against the Brooklyn Nets.
Although Jrue Holiday, Nikola Mirotic, and Julius Randle are talented players, the Pelicans lack the star power to win consistently in the NBA. As Yahoo Sports’s Chris Haynes says, “the Pelicans will go as far as Davis takes them.”
Haynes quotes Davis:
"“[…] I got to play almost perfect every night to give us a chance to win. But my teammates do a great job. […] Those guys are great players, good defenders, good role players. They do as much as possible to help me.”"
Right now, we are seeing a glimpse of just how important Davis is to this Pelicans team. While this was never any secret, his health and consistent superstar-level play will determine almost all of the Pelicans’ macro-level success. Sure, it will be great if Elfrid Payton looks refreshed this season, or if Mirotic really is as good as he looked last year. But the Pelicans don’t do anything without AD – not even make the playoffs.
Thankfully for them, though, the injury seems minor. In fact, Davis played against the Golden State Warriors the game prior to New Orleans’s loss to the Blazers. And over the last two years, Davis has missed only seven games per season. This number will likely grow this season because of his increased role at center, but AD has been pretty solid recently.
Davis will carry the team into the playoffs so long as he plays more than 60 or so games. His MVP-level production is that good. This season, he’s averaging 25.2 points, 13 rebounds, and 5.2 assists.
However, I agree with Charles Barkley. The Blazers really do have it all. Among their two elite backcourt guards in Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum, they also have a plethora of big man talent, two spark-plug shooters in Nik Stauskas and Seth Curry, and a big veteran backup point guard in Evan Turner to maintain control of games.
These seem like all the ingredients to succeed in the regular season. If one section of the group isn’t playing well, another section can make up for them.
For the Pelicans, there will certainly be games where Jrue Holiday or Julius Randle win them singlehandedly, but their success seems more contingent on one Anthony Davis than the Blazers’ does on Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum.
Of course, regular season success doesn’t much matter if the Blazers cannot beat the Pelicans in the playoffs. They failed (pretty miserably) last year in a sweep. But if they can gain homecourt advantage once again this year, their slightly revamped team should matchup better against these birds.
As Kenny Smith says:
"“What happened last year [in the playoffs against the Pelicans] was an anomaly. I don’t think that’s something that’s going to continue to happen because they just met the perfect storm of two guys who felt underrated with Rondo and Holiday at the same time.”"
At the very least, double teams onto Lillard and McCollum can be passed out to knockdown shooters Curry or Stauskas as punishment.
The Blazers should get the better of the Pelicans this year. But we’ll get a better idea of whether that is true when Anthony Davis actually plays against them. That day comes (hopefully) on January 18. For now though, Portland has the upper-hand.