Dejounte Murray returns, shaking up the rotation. The New Orleans Pelicans prioritize veteran talent, benching promising rookies to chase playoff contention now.
It has been speculated for the past few days about what New Orleans Pelicans coach James Borrego would do to the rotation with guard Dejounte Murray returning to action on Tuesday against the Golden State Warriors.
The team has just announced the starting lineup, and it has some interesting choices. These are the players starting on Tuesday night:
Dejounte Murray
Herbert Jones
Zion Williamson
Saddiq Bey
DeAndre Jordan
This gives a pretty clear view of what the plan is for this roster, as of right now. While many are calling for the Pelicans to blow it up and focus on the future, they are determined to see how good the team can be as constructed.
That means sending Derik Queen to the bench now, joining fellow rookie Jeremiah Fears. Both saw action as starters very early in their careers. They have shown a lot of promise/potential, but both also have a bunch of flaws that lead to the team not playing winning basketball.
There are pretty much two options for the team to consider. Accept the losing and just focus on developing their youngsters, or decreasing their playing time and focusing on the veterans that are playing better basketball. New Orleans has chosen the latter.
It was clear that the Pelicans' front office thought that there was enough talent on this roster to push for a spot in the playoffs. That's why they traded this season's first-round pick in the Queen deal.
While New Orleans hasn't done much winning with that roster, making that trade look worse, they also haven't been very healthy this season.
With Murray back, they'll finally have some chances to get a look at what this team will look like. Now Trey Murphy is hurt, though, so they'll have to wait
It appears that the teams' performance over the final stretch will have a major impact on the decision-making this offseason.