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The NBA’s Western Conference is going to be like bumper cars with all the movement this season
It’s October, so Halloween season is upon us, but it’s also time for the NBA to return. All the talk and some drama will be shoved aside as teams return to the court, hoping to do what the Golden State Warriors did last season in raising the Larry O’Brien NBA Finals trophy....

The Pelicans have finally taken flight
Bourbon Street in New Orleans exists in a loop. Every night the street clicks back into a state of debauchery, repeated with perverse precision. Lonely men drift in and out of red neon strip clubs holding cans of Natty Light. Police on horses stroll between sleeping bums, screaming preachers, pools ...

5 players to watch at NBA Summer League
Players who were added to NBA rosters two weeks ago take the court to play against young NBA talent, and people who are still desperately clutching their professional basketball dreams. There were a handful of teams in San Francisco and Utah earlier in the week, but the big show is in Vegas for 10 d...

The plan in is place and the pieces are set — now the Pelicans just have to execute
The New Orleans Pelicans blueprint was on display in the 2022 NBA Finals....

It’s all smiles with the Pelicans and Zion Williamson these days, or so they tell us
Barring any unforeseen circumstances, such as another Zion Williamson injury, in the 2022-23 season expect to see the full New Orleans Pelicans team that basketball fans wish had taken on the Phoenix Suns in the first round of the NBA Playoffs. The Pelicans can offer Williamson a max contract extens...

David Griffin is Executive of the Year
Before Feb. 8, New Orleans Pelicans executive Vice President of Basketball Operations David Griffin was getting dragged for the team’s sorry state he oversaw. The Pelicans were 21 and 32, headed toward another disastrous season until that point. At the same time, Zion Williamson avoided the team at ...

The Pelicans turned the NBA’s least interesting playoff matchup into can’t-miss television
Even after the New Orleans Pelicans’ disastrous 1-12 start to the 2021-22 season, it’s not as if there was some seismic shift. Their first winning streak came in mid-December when they tallied four victories in a row. Before that, they were still only 9-21 on the season. Since that streak they have ...

The Pelicans are having a pair of rookies guard Chris Paul and it just might work
What’s a Point God to a nonbeliever? Going into last night’s Game 4 against the New Orleans Pelicans, a 118-103 New Orleans win, Chris Paul had already put together a pair of impressive fourth-quarter performances to help the Phoenix Suns go up 2-1. It looks like that may not happen again this serie...

Ranking the NBA’s first round matchups by how likely we are to see an upset
The NBA’s playoffs are easily the most predictable of the major American sports leagues. Without the variability of baseball or the single playoff game format like football, it’s pretty rare that there are any true upsets in the first round of the NBA playoffs. In most years you look at the bracket ...
![It's CJ McCollum's moment now: Paul George out [UPDATED]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/8d247f9aab987ffa757f9f5429d7b167.jpg)
It's CJ McCollum's moment now: Paul George out [UPDATED]
This story has been updated....

Only the NBA has teams in all three of Atlanta, New Orleans and Memphis and the league is much better for it
At Smoothie King Center in New Orleans they serve frozen daiquiris, at State Farm Arena in Atlanta there is a barbershop, at FedExForum in Memphis they regularly play, from the Oscar winning film Hustle and Flow, “Whoop that Trick.” ...

The Western Conference had better hope that Zion returning to New Orleans is another false alarm
A lot happened this past weekend. So much that Duke fans cried and Duke haters laughed at the same time for about five minutes following Duke’s 94-81 loss in Mike Krzyzewski’s last game at Cameron Indoor Stadium, before LeBron James got to work scoring 56 points to help get the Los Angeles Lakers’ t...

Zion might want to leave the Pelicans, but he really shouldn’t
Zion Williamson’s absence from the New Orleans Pelicans has of late led to tons of speculation about his future. Former teammate JJ Redick made the rounds on ESPN shows to talk about Zion’s lack of professionalism, even saying on First Take that he had even addressed it with Zion in front of the tea...

What the hell is going on in New Orleans
When he came into the NBA as a generational talent in 2019, Zion Williamson was thought to be New Orleans’ basketball savior, the player to make The Big Easy one of the marquee stops in the league’s rotation. Now, continued talk about his investment in the Pelicans has hit a climax, with possibly th...

At this point, Anthony Davis is what he is
The 2021-22 season has been less than stellar thus far for Anthony Davis and the Los Angeles Lakers, and much of that falls on the shoulders of the former No. 1 pick. This was supposed to be the year Davis took over as the Lakers’ best player, but that blueprint hasn’t worked out the way it was draw...

After another setback for Zion, the New Orleans Pelicans had better know what they’re doing
Today was supposed to be the big day for New Orleans Pelicans forward Zion Williamson. A fractured foot has kept him off the court for this entire season as the Pelicans have sputtered to a 6-18 start. Williamson was cleared on Friday to participate in full team activities, and The Athletic’s Shams ...

David Griffin is the problem in New Orleans
David Griffin is David Griffin’s biggest problem....

Zion may not have stopped trying, but it certainly looks like he has
Whenever I watch a nature special and we get to the point where that one wildebeest is starting to straggle and the lions are slowly creeping up, I feel bad for the prey. The Pelicans are that disease-ridden, emaciated wildebeest begging to be feasted upon by a pack of hungry potential new owners....