Anthony Davis, the modern day Kevin Garnett, is on his way to replicate Garnett's saddest record of his illustrious (and mostly wasted) career. If the season were to end today, Davis would lead the NBA in WS/48 at .262, making him the first player to lead the league in WS/48 and fail to make the playoffs since KG in the 2004-2005 season.
I don't understand it. New Orleans is not stacked, but Holiday/Randle/Mirotic seems like a decent complimentary core when you consider some of the rosters Harden has carried over the years. E'Twaun Moore is a good player. Rondo loss hurts, but I just don't understand how year after year AD fails to make the playoffs... yet you'll see people's top five and a lot of the time you'll see AD over Harden. Is AD overrated as hell or is there something I'm missing with New Orleans? No one is expecting them to challenge the Warriors, but the Pelicans have hardly made the playoffs during AD's tenure. He is a dominant two-way player that fills up the stat-sheet every night, but have never understood his lack of post-season success and accolades. When are people going to start seriously holding it against him? My guess is he jumps ship before we find out.
While this dude hasn't done much in his career besides racking stats, Hardens is the one being labeled as a choker.
Somehow they are not playing Defense. You could see their Offense averaging a Top 5 or Top 6 number. They share the ball enough. Rebounding is also decent.
They actually made second round in the playoffs last year, losing 3-1 to the warriors so not bad. Mirotic has been injured for a while now so I expect them to do better when he comes back.
In almost any other year they should be in the postseason, their SRS is 12th in the NBA despite the losing record, the west is just that brutal.