New Orleans Pelicans will be a recreation of the Lob City Clippers

The New Orleans Pelicans have some of the most exciting players in the league on the roster and will look very much like a former title contender.

The New Orleans Pelicans are doing about as good as you can do after losing one of the five best players in the NBA. Despite trading Anthony Davis to the Los Angeles Lakers, the Pelicans are actually in a very solid situation and are giving fans plenty to get excited about.

First and foremost, the lottery balls bounced in the Pelicans favor and the team landed the draft rights to Zion Williamson. There really is only one way to completely kickstart a rebuild after trading Davis and that is by landing the most anticipated rookie since LeBron James.

That didn’t even have anything to do with the Davis deal, either. In that deal, the Pelicans received Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram Josh Hart and draft capital that they then flipped into other assets. Part of those other assets is Jaxson Hayes, a center out of Texas that the team picked with the eight-overall pick.

Then there is the established talent of Jrue Holiday, who truly is criminally underrated, as well as new signing J.J. Redick, who provides lights out three-point shooting and a veteran presence.

Redick finds himself on a very similar team to the old Clippers team that he was a part of. While the Pelicans are not quite ready to be NBA Title contenders, the playstyle and overall excitement factor mimics that of the Lob City Clippers.

Redick was on the Clippers from 2013 to 2017 and caught Lob City at its absolute peak. While that Clippers team never made it past the second round, they were one of the most exciting teams night in and night out.

The Pelicans have that potential with a very similar skill set.

The acting point guard in this situation is Lonzo Ball, who is a much younger, and not as good version of Chris Paul. However, like Paul, Ball can provide excellent defense at the point guard position, but most importantly, he is an elite facilitator. He is going to throw plenty of lobs.

Then at the receiving end, you have Zion, who is a first overall pick like Blake Griffin and is a thunderous finisher at the rim, like Griffin has been his entire career. Just right there the writing is on the wall for Ball and Zion to be the newer, younger version of CP3 and Griffin.

It does not stop there, either, as Hayes could potentially make some noise. While he is still very green, his 6’11” size and 72.8 field goal percentage in college are very similar to that of DeAndre Jordan.

Throw in the experienced guys in Redick and Holiday and Ingram, who looks ready to become a 20 per night scorer, and it is apparent that the Pelicans have the talent and have the similar foundation that the Clippers did earlier this decade.

The 2019 New Orleans Pelicans might not be all there quite yet, however, they are going to begin to show the foundation of becoming the new, and hopefully more successful, lob city.