The myth that the Pels are bad at developing players
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So I've heard/read people casually throwing around how bad the Pels are at drafting and developing players. I didn't think much of it at first....but then I was watching a BKM episode yesterday and they were really laying into it. Even saying it should be something we should consider when evaluating players in this draft since we wouldn't be able to develop any player that isn't completely polished before we get our inept hands on them. That segment was followed up with the same guys talking up Herb and TMIII in trade scenarios. When one of the guys mentioned that Trey comes back every season with a new skill added to his game it really had me going down a rabbit hole of Pelicans player development.
This isn't to bash BKM. I'm still listening to them. Liked and subscribed. Same thing with Jake Madison at Locked on Pels. I am loving that we actually have Pels content to listen to and want them here to stay....but they also deleted my comment pointing out this contradiction which really got my brain going so now you all have to read this thread here.
Anyways. Let's analyze how well we develop players. Here's who we've drafted since 2020 (I only included guys we drafted who didn't get traded prior to that season they were drafted, also I'll throw in Naji and Jose):
Kira Lewis #13 2020
Naji Marshall undrafted 2020
Trey Murphy III #17 2021
Herb Jones #35 2021
Jose Alvarado undrafted 2021
Dyson Daniels #8 2022
EJ Lidell #41 2022
Karlo Matkovic #52 2022
Jordan Hawkins #14 2023
Yves Missi #21 2024
The NBA is hard to keep up with since players get drafted and then traded to other teams so fast.....did I miss any young players drafted by another team and then sent to us? Check my work.
Anyways. Let's start with the bad and Kira Lewis Jr. I had to go back five years ago to find our biggest whiff. I could make excuses for the guy since the poor dude was more a victim of the #pelslife injury curse than an actual development bust. He was coming along fine before he tore his ACL and sprained his MCL in 2021. He never looked the same since. But the haters don't have much going for them so I'll give 'em this....he did not live up to the expectations of a 13th pick.
Jordan Hawkins. The jury is still out for Hawkins. The kid is only 23 entering his third year. I'll also point out that if we look at NBA 2K ratings for 14th overall picks (yeah, I'm embarassed to pull out this stat), the other teams in the league haven't exactly lit it up there either. But I think we can all agree that his current trajectory is disappointing so we'll let the negatives have him, too.
And that's it for the bad. In five years we have one guy who was derailed by injuries and another who is trending not so good but still has time to suprise us.
Let's get EJ Liddell out of the way. I mean....he's still in the league. That's kind of good for the 41st overall pick (outside of Jokic) but we still won't claim him on the positive side.
The first four positives are pretty obvious. Jose and Naji went undrafted. That's not unheard of in the NBA but it's pretty stellar for guys to go undrafted and to be playing at the level GTAlvarado Naji do. Herb Jones. Enough said. Way outplaying the pick 35 slot. And Trey.....the best 17th pick still active in the NBA. Very much outplaying his pick.
To continue the positives, Missi is very early to be claiming victory but this thread is about development and he clearly outplayed his expectations last season which is a major sign of good development.
Haters will be mad I'm claiming Dyson Daniels as a sign the Pelicans develop players well but it's not like the guy went to ATL and took three years to explode. The kid was traded July of 2024. We clearly had more to do with his development than ATL did.
And last is Matkovich. He's not blowing up the league but only Camara for Portland is doing better at pick 52. He is absolutely outplaying expectations.
THAT IS DEVELOPMENT. These players didn't just magically all do better than their expectations on their own. If it were one or three guys, maybe that's a coincidence...but this many successes and so few failures is irrefutable.
In conclusion. In the past five years we've had two disappointments in Kira and Hawkins (so far).....unless I've missed someone.
We've also developed seven players into vastly outplaying their expectations. I haven't done a deep dive into the other teams around the league but I'm fairly certain that puts us as one of the top teams at developing players. Yes, we lost Vinson and some scouting guys with the new regime coming in so we'll see if we continue this pretty great streak but we should definitely put the "New Orleans can't develop players" myth to rest.
Jeremiah Robinson-Earl was 2021 but I'm not really sure how to rate his development with us since he started in NY. I think it's positive...
This isn't to bash BKM. I'm still listening to them. Liked and subscribed. Same thing with Jake Madison at Locked on Pels. I am loving that we actually have Pels content to listen to and want them here to stay....but they also deleted my comment pointing out this contradiction which really got my brain going so now you all have to read this thread here.
Anyways. Let's analyze how well we develop players. Here's who we've drafted since 2020 (I only included guys we drafted who didn't get traded prior to that season they were drafted, also I'll throw in Naji and Jose):
Kira Lewis #13 2020
Naji Marshall undrafted 2020
Trey Murphy III #17 2021
Herb Jones #35 2021
Jose Alvarado undrafted 2021
Dyson Daniels #8 2022
EJ Lidell #41 2022
Karlo Matkovic #52 2022
Jordan Hawkins #14 2023
Yves Missi #21 2024
The NBA is hard to keep up with since players get drafted and then traded to other teams so fast.....did I miss any young players drafted by another team and then sent to us? Check my work.
Anyways. Let's start with the bad and Kira Lewis Jr. I had to go back five years ago to find our biggest whiff. I could make excuses for the guy since the poor dude was more a victim of the #pelslife injury curse than an actual development bust. He was coming along fine before he tore his ACL and sprained his MCL in 2021. He never looked the same since. But the haters don't have much going for them so I'll give 'em this....he did not live up to the expectations of a 13th pick.
Jordan Hawkins. The jury is still out for Hawkins. The kid is only 23 entering his third year. I'll also point out that if we look at NBA 2K ratings for 14th overall picks (yeah, I'm embarassed to pull out this stat), the other teams in the league haven't exactly lit it up there either. But I think we can all agree that his current trajectory is disappointing so we'll let the negatives have him, too.
And that's it for the bad. In five years we have one guy who was derailed by injuries and another who is trending not so good but still has time to suprise us.
Let's get EJ Liddell out of the way. I mean....he's still in the league. That's kind of good for the 41st overall pick (outside of Jokic) but we still won't claim him on the positive side.
The first four positives are pretty obvious. Jose and Naji went undrafted. That's not unheard of in the NBA but it's pretty stellar for guys to go undrafted and to be playing at the level GTAlvarado Naji do. Herb Jones. Enough said. Way outplaying the pick 35 slot. And Trey.....the best 17th pick still active in the NBA. Very much outplaying his pick.
To continue the positives, Missi is very early to be claiming victory but this thread is about development and he clearly outplayed his expectations last season which is a major sign of good development.
Haters will be mad I'm claiming Dyson Daniels as a sign the Pelicans develop players well but it's not like the guy went to ATL and took three years to explode. The kid was traded July of 2024. We clearly had more to do with his development than ATL did.
And last is Matkovich. He's not blowing up the league but only Camara for Portland is doing better at pick 52. He is absolutely outplaying expectations.
THAT IS DEVELOPMENT. These players didn't just magically all do better than their expectations on their own. If it were one or three guys, maybe that's a coincidence...but this many successes and so few failures is irrefutable.
In conclusion. In the past five years we've had two disappointments in Kira and Hawkins (so far).....unless I've missed someone.
We've also developed seven players into vastly outplaying their expectations. I haven't done a deep dive into the other teams around the league but I'm fairly certain that puts us as one of the top teams at developing players. Yes, we lost Vinson and some scouting guys with the new regime coming in so we'll see if we continue this pretty great streak but we should definitely put the "New Orleans can't develop players" myth to rest.
Jeremiah Robinson-Earl was 2021 but I'm not really sure how to rate his development with us since he started in NY. I think it's positive...