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New Orleans Pelicans: What to make of NAW after rookie struggles

Entering the season with a treasure chest full of high-ceiling prospects, the New Orleans Pelicans hoped to get their rookies started on the right foot.

Unfortunately, the plug-and-play impact never happened for Nickeil Alexander-Walker in the first year of his NBA career, who was drafted with the team’s seventeenth-overall pick in the 2019 NBA Draft.

Though they desperately needed another ballhandler in their offense due to a bevy of injuries to their starting lineup at the start of the season, Nickeil never found his stride in the Pelicans’ rotations.

Suffering a hairline fracture in his right wrist during a two-game stint with the Erie Bay Hawks of the G-League, the team announced Alexander-Walker would be out indefinitely, likely ending his rookie campaign for New Orleans.