“Zero improvement.”
Those were the words uttered by my friend Nate in the Irish Channel after the Pelicans lost to the upstart Orlando Magic, placing them in the once-avoided play-in group, something that was deemed unthinkable a few weeks ago.
Nate in the Irish Channel showed me his season ticket invoice from the past few years. When I saw the invoice for his tickets, I couldn’t help but be floored.
“They want $5400 for next season, Ryne,” he said.
That’s right, the basketball team in New Orleans wanted him to spend five stacks on a product that is more set on being a perennial play-in team.
In March, I made the mistake of crowning the Pelicans as a playoff team. My reasoning was that the team did three things that I wanted them to do: 1) win on Fridays, 2) avoid losing streaks, and 3) win a back-to-back.
When they won the back-to-back at home in mid-March, I said, ok this is a playoff team.
They’ve did the things that I asked of them to do in the month of March.
When the calendar switched to April, I was confident, largely in part to the fact that the Pelicans played like a team that wanted to be in the playoffs, not the play-in, that they would wrap up the division and more importantly, be either the fourth or fifth seed.
Boy, was I wrong.
On Monday, Devin Booker did all but build a new arena on Dave Dixon Drive and made the Pelicans his bitch on the floor.
Last night, the Orlando Magic, behind the solid play of Paolo Banchero, came into the Smoothie King Center and sonned the Pelicans.
There’s a good chance now that the Pelicans will be in the play-in tournament again.
Anyone who thinks otherwise at this point is crazy.