In an in-depth feature this week about New Orleans’ future prospects, Shaun Powell of NBA.com penned an article that was headlined “With a pair of top-10 players, the Pelicans have the foundation of a championship team.” Whether or not the 2016-17 Pelicans have the makings of a playoff-qualifying team is another matter, because after going 1-4 since the All-Star break, they’ve slipped to 4.5 games behind eighth-place Denver, their biggest deficit in months.
New Orleans (24-38) is beginning to run out of time to make a push for the playoffs, though it still has three head-to-head matchups with the Nuggets (28-33), all between March 26 and April 7 – and all in the Pelicans’ final 10 games of the regular season.