Alright, so let’s pretend that we find ourselves fully healthy for the first time since the name change. We have so many talented pieces deserving of minutes… how do you think our coaching staff handles the plethora of talent? In my opinion, the Pelicans essentially have 11 guys that could start on many teams throughout the NBA. Just my no-basketball-coaching-experience opinion here, but here’s how I’d handle it in immediate future:

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Starters: Dyson - Herb - BI - Zion - Jonas

This lineup screams defense and transition buckets, and it’s working. Dyson has been a dog and learning much more quickly being surrounded by the starters. Herb is DPOY candidate, but it doesn’t make a difference if the opposing team screens him with their worst player and we switch everything. Having another menace like Dyson out there allows creative defensive schemes as we saw against Dallas this past week. This also frees up BI and Zion to handle the majority of the scoring, which I think is important as Dyson and Herb don’t need the ball in their hands to make an impact.

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Second Line (in order of mins): CJ - Trey - Hawkins - Jose - Naji - Nance

CJ and Trey deserve starter level minutes regardless of where they are in the lineup. It’s hard to call CJ and Trey “bench” players with their level of impact, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see either one of them in the starting lineup. I do think those two leading the bench would instantly make the Pelicans’ second unit one of the best in the entire league. It also allows us to get creative on offense. Can you imagine a CJ-Trey-Hawkins-Zion lineup at some point? BUCKETS. Jose and Naji continuously prove they deserve minutes with their energy and effort, hopefully providing much needed breaks for our starters.

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Deep Bench: Matt Ryan-Zeller-Robinson Earl

I’ve been impressed with all three of these players this season, and it’s nice to have them in case of injuries or foul trouble.

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Whatever your view of the team is, when healthy, we have a deep roster that affords a lot of coaching creativity on both sides of the ball. We can expose a lot of teams’ weaknesses utilizing our different lineups and array of talent… IF we ever get fully healthy.

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Pels stacked.

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