Will Pels' Improved Play Be Enough to Make the Playoffs?

Can the New Orleans Pelicans win enough to make the playoffs?

By: Peter Egan

Don't look now, but the New Orleans Pelicans are all of a sudden playing good basketball. After a dreadful start to the season and an almost equally bad stretch following their trade-deadline deal to acquire DeMarcus Cousins, the Pels' recent hot streak has them in a position to potentially sneak into the playoffs as the eighth seed if they can win down the stretch - a feat thought to be all but impossible just a few short weeks ago.

Having won five of their last six games, the Pelicans have climbed back into the playoff conversation with eleven games remaining, despite being 30-41 on the season. The team trails Denver by four games, Portland by 2.5 (3 if Portland beats the Knicks March 23, which is likely as they're ahead 20+ points in the second half), and Dallas by one game as of this writing. The good news for the Pels is that they have three of their final eleven games against current 8 seed Denver, and one each with Dallas and Portland.

Speaking purely hypothetically, if New Orleans was to win all five of those games, they'd only need Denver to lose one more than the Pels lose down the stretch to tie them in the standings (Pels would own the tiebreaker). They'd need Portland to lose at least two more games (than the Pels), and Dallas just one in order for New Orleans to surpass the Mavericks.

When the Pelicans traded guards Buddy Heild, Tyreke Evans and Langston Galloway for Cousins and forward Omri Cassipi, the general consensus was that the move was intended to give the Pels "big 3" (Cousins, Anthony Davis and Jrue Holiday) two dozen games together to see if they can find enough chemistry to help the front office make a decision about whether or not to re-sign Holiday, who will be a free agent after this season; and/or determine what if any other pieces must be added this offseason in order to turn the team into a legitimate contender for the 2017-2018 season.

That line of thinking was further cemented after the Pels won just two of their first eight games following the trade, with one of the two wins coming in a game in which Cousins was suspended for committing his 17th technical foul on the season (a player must sit out a game for each technical after his 16th on the season). All arrows seemed to be pointing down for New Orleans, which at 25-40 appeared to have faded out of the playoff conversation. Holiday wasn't meshing with Davis and Cousins, and the Pels' lack of guards following the trade appeared to be too much to overcome.

Then something remarkable happened. The Pelicans seemingly struck gold with the signing of D-League shooting guard Jordan Crawford, who has scored in double-figures in seven of his eight games with the Pels and has averaged 13.8 per game since signing. What's more, Holiday, Davis and Cousins seem to have developed some chemistry, and five wins in six games later the Pelicans look like a team nobody wants to play. Among their five wins in that stretch are blowout victories against Portland, Houston, Minnesota and Memphis; and an overtime win on the road against Charlotte. The only loss during that stretch was a road loss at Miami - one of the hottest teams in the NBA - on the second day of a back-to-back.

While not impossible, the Pelicans have very little room for error, as their remaining stretch includes three back-to-back road games, including a showdown with reigning Western Conference champion Golden State, and a road game against the Rockets, who look to be every bit the contender this year.

The overwhelming probability is that this team does not make the playoffs, but they've currently won five of six and if they can go 9-2 or 10-1 down the stretch winning all five games against the teams competing with them for the 8 seed, anything's possible. If nothing else, this team has put the league on notice that they're for real and look to be a part of the conversation next year, and winning or the possibility thereof always makes a team and a city more attractive to free agents.

If the Pels keep playing like they have the past six games for the remaining eleven, they'll certainly have made their case as a future contender for free agency, and adding the missing piece would appear to be less improbable than it was two-and-a-half weeks ago.

Peter Egan is (among other things) a Pelicans fan from south Louisiana. He has worked in journalism as a sports stringer, beat writer and feature writer covering local sports. He now works in the healthcare industry.