The first month or so of an NBA season is about mixing in the ingredients added over the summer by a team’s front office to the group left over from the year before. Sometimes, it’s a new star to put a team over the top; other times, merely a couple role players brought in for marginal improvement. So to hear men up and down the New Orleans Pelicans organization discussing the need to “find out who [they] are” 31 games into the season is troubling.
Though tonight’s contest at home against the Miami Heat is indeed winnable, as is a home tilt versus the Dallas Mavericks on Monday, the Pelicans will soon face a cluster of teams who will leave them no margin for error.