The Pelicans have never been a strong team, and while Anthony Davis has garnered a wave of attention for them, it hasn't lasted.
Therefore, their only route to success can only rely on hoarding draft picks, swinging and other ways.
The "Bauer + Ingram" in the Anthony Davis trade became the cornerstone of the team, and the arrival of Williamson zion allowed the Pelicans to accelerate the rebuilding.
At present, the Pelicans are 11th in the West with 25 wins and 32 losses after a wave of three consecutive losses, and they are five wins away from the eighth-place Grizzlies.
While the Pelicans have little chance of making the playoffs this season, their potential has been seen by everyone.
—Williamson Zion, who scored 26.8 points, 7.2 rebounds and 3.7 assists this season with a 60 percent shooting percentage, was successfully named to the All-Star Team.
— Brandon Ingram, who averaged 24.2 points, five rebounds and 4.8 assists per game, also maintained a career average of 47%.
Both are valued by the team in all aspects, whether it is the amount of Ingram's contract or Zion's tactical position, the sincerity of the team can be seen.
In fact, the only player in the "Pelicans Three" who is somewhat unrecognized is LangzoBauer.
Why is Bauer not recognized?
— According to Marc Berman, a New York Post reporter, if Lonzo Ball receives an average salary of more than $20 million in the offseason, the Pelicans may choose not to match.
"With concerns about the luxury tax and the Pelicans already having a rookie duo of Kayla Lewis Jr. and Nikir Alexander Walker in the same position, the league generally doesn't expect the Pelicans to match Ball's offer of more than $20 million."
Compared with the "maximum salary contract" when in Theraim, the Pelicans treated Ball with a world of difference.
And this is not the first time that the pelicans may let go of Ball, and in the eyes of the Pelicans management, Ball has not been in the future plan.
Of course, this is also related to the slow growth of Bauer's personal ability, this season, he averaged 31.7 minutes per game, can get 14.5 points, 4.2 rebounds and 5.7 assists.
Although this data is not bad in the league, as a member of the Pelicans' "three potential minorities", it is somewhat out of the Pelicans' eyes.
What's more, today, Kayla Lewis Jr. and Alexander Walker Jr. are also playing better and better, and their presence has greatly reduced Bauer's value.
So Ball probably knew at the start of the season that he had only two options: the first was to be traded to a team in the middle of the season in exchange for chips; the second was to test the free market in the offseason.
Objectively speaking, RonzoBauer's "explosive performance" at the opening of the trading market gave him the opportunity to stay in the team.
Of course, judging from the pelicans' opinions that the Pelicans have always maintained, they are not reluctant to issue a contract for Ball, but they believe that Ball's future is not worth a salary to bet on.
Therefore, their attitude towards Bauer has always been very ambiguous, sometimes showing favors, and sometimes wanting to abandon him.
Regardless of the Pelicans' choice, Ball wants to get a $20 million contract, is he competitive in the free agency?
In fact, the players who could not play the core of the original team, but performed well, are not promoted to a team "big brother".
The farther Houston Rockets "bet" James Harden not to say, just say that the Pacers "bet" on the Bucks Brogdon.
At that time, Brogdon, the "little brother" of the Bucks alphabet brother, signed a high-paying contract with the Pacers, was established as one of the core of the team, and was criticized.
— This season, Brogdon earns $20.75 million, averaging 21.4 points and six assists per game, shooting 46 percent from the field and shooting 40 percent from three-point range.
At first, the signing was called "gambling", but judging from Brogdon's performance in the past two seasons, the Pacers did not lose money, and can only say that the management has "unique vision".
Brogdon's status in the team at that time was not low, he could be called the strongest scorer besides the alphabet brother, and his efficiency was even comparable to Thatlton.
Although RonzoBauer has not yet played such a good performance in the Pelicans, his advantage is more in defense, three-points, and organization.
Let's analyze, where is his level?
Ball was not known for his individual offense at the beginning of his career, but for his defense and organization.
Because of his stature, he is not left behind when he is able to defend any defender in the league, and he can also pass a long four-pointer.
And, surprisingly, Ball's defense is not like Beverley's "bite-biting" defense, but interferes through physical pressure and the judgment of the basketball line.
This defensive mode is not only clean and not easily plagued by fouls, but also to the point, and once you get a chance to break the ball, it can quickly translate into points.
In the first few seasons of his career, his poor scoring ability had made him questionable.
While Ball has improved his offense in the last two seasons, especially three-pointers, he's averaged 2.5 three-pointers per game this season and can deliver 6+ assists, which is absolutely stunning.
But Ball's current individual offensive abilities aren't enough to make him the central character of a team.
Obviously, it is difficult for a "well-funded" reconstruction team to be interested in developing him.
That is to say, he needs to be a "second boss" or even a "three boss" in a competitive team, otherwise, it is difficult for a team to offer him this level of salary.
After all, the 20 million contract is not a "maximum salary" today, but for those competitive teams, it is still difficult to give such a contract.
- The championship team signs a 20 million player, which is very luxurious, and the rationality of the lineup may not be conducive to team building; the playoff team signs a 20 million player, but in essence, there may not be a big improvement, and the space will be locked.
Therefore, all teams of players of this level will consider it with extreme caution.
But the headache is that Compared with other players with excellent scoring ability, Ball's play is still not stable enough, such as Schroeder, who also pursues big contracts.
Although Schroeder did not play that kind of "explosive power" in the Lakers, nor was he able to play the strength of the star level, at least he repeatedly used actions in the game to show that he was not inferior in scoring ability.
Therefore, with Ball's current competitiveness, it is still a bit ambiguous to get a 20 million contract.
In the 19-20 season, Ronzobauer averaged 12.4 points, 6.2 rebounds, 6.9 assists and 1.4 steals per game.
And this season, his level has improved:
- Averaging 14.5 points, 4.2 rebounds and 5.7 assists per game can be called a quality point guard, an excellent championship puzzle;
In terms of high-level data, the season's 18.6% utilization rate, 2.6 victory contribution value, 29.3% assist rate and 52.9% true shooting rate are also career highs;
In terms of outside projection, he averaged 2.5 three-pointers per game with 38.3% shooting, which is already very accurate.
The most obvious difference from the projection alone is that opponents will not give him the opportunity to magnify the empty three-point opportunity as in the past, and Ball becomes a point where he can open up space.
But even so, he meant less to the Pelicans than he had ever done.
Not to mention the impact that Walker and Lewis brought to his position, just saying that he could not solve the problem of Zion and Ingram coexisting showed that he was not far from the team.
As we all know, although the Pelicans have Zion and Ingram as the core and work hard to find a way to cooperate and coexist between the two, they have never been able to play a tacit understanding between the two.
If you can play with Ball as the axis when the two have just begun to cooperate, when Ball plays smoothly, the whole team will be in a fast-paced state with a lot of transfer of the ball.
Well, today's Bauer is beginning to be unable to control this situation.
Ingram's ball-handling attributes should be known to everyone, and he played a very amazing performance when he led the team alone, cutting high score data many times.
But Zion's arrival has undoubtedly left his core ball-wielding attacker in a position of security.
Although Zion is an inside player, the team does not want him to just be a "terminator", and it can be seen that the team is also consciously honing Zion's passing technology.
But this is clearly contrary to Ingram's way of playing, and it is obvious that the team has some "embarrassing" problems.
All in all, the Pelicans have the opportunity to match the offer to keep Ball, and Ball wants to get a big contract, he has to work hard to take the offensive performance further.