National Basketball Association

New Orleans Pelicans News: The Week of September 26

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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It’s tough to stay caught up on all of the New Orleans Pelicans’ action from across the country and across the internet. Never fear, we have you caught up on everything from the week of September 26th.

Anthony Davis grows an inch, adds ten pounds

One of the best parts of an NBA offseason is the annual #MuscleWatch that takes place on Twitter and in gyms across the country. This year, as Anthony Davis prepared to join the New Orleans Pelicans training camp, he announced that he has officially grown an inch and added about ten pounds to his frame. He was measured at 6’10 ½” at the Draft Combine, and was listed at 253 pounds last year. However, he insists he’s never played over 250 lbs. and will never tell people he’s anything but his usual 6’10”:

“I think 6-10’s like the perfect height for me. It just doesn’t sound right; 6-10 sounds perfect to me. 6-11, 7 feet. … I don’t like it.”

Starting Lineup will shuffle from game to game

Head Coach Alvin Gentry was surely eager to hear the news of Davis’s offseason growth; as training camp has forged on for the Pelicans, Gentry has had no shortness of interesting quotes. This week, he mentioned to several reporters that he intends to choose his starting frontcourt based on matchup and recent play.

Center Omer Asik, who has started for the team in each of the past two seasons, is saying all of the right things:

”Last season really left a bad taste, so we are really working hard to change that,” Asik, who struggled with several nagging injuries last season,” Asik said. ”My whole focus this summer was to get better physically and get stronger.”

However, Gentry would be silly not to tinker with the rotation in this way. With Jrue Holiday out, he’ll need any advantage he can get, and putting the most talent on the court as possible is the best way to find one. Alexis Ajinca said at camp to expect a starting role from him; Terrence Jones was a starter during Houston’s Western Conference Finals run; Solomon Hill can shift down if injuries strike or the matchup is right. This is what makes the 2016-17 New Orleans Pelicans fun!

Quinn Cook has little chance to make the final roster

In an opinion piece for Ridiculous Upside, Nicholas LeTourneau tries to make the case for Duke and NBA Developmental League phenom Quinn Cook as he fights for a roster spot during training camp. However, he eventually comes to the consensus many of us have: with Holiday, Tim Frazier, E’Twaun Moore, Langston Galloway and Tyreke Evans already on the roster, the Pelicans would be hard-pressed to absorb Cook. It’s the same uphill battle Lance Stephenson is facing. The more likely truth is that the Pels brought Cook in as a camp body for scrimmages, scouting, and competition.

“With Holiday missing the start of the season and Evans not 100 percent healthy, this leaves former D-League MVP Tim Frazier as the team’s starting point guard on opening day. If something were to happen to him, maybe the team somehow keeps Cook. But even then, there are just too many contracts and too many other positions that need shoring up on this roster outside of point guard.”

Solomon Hill is a goofball and a winner

With the anime movement swinging its way through American professional sports, it was just a matter of time before it got to the New Orleans Pelicans. And it now has, in the form of Solomon Hill. Speaking with Jim Eichenhofer of NBA.com, Hill admitted to the guilty pleasure, among many other fun tidbits.

Some great news to uncover here is that Hill’s favorite movie the 1990s classic Forrest Gump. It couldn’t be scripted better: leave an Indiana Pacers system dominated by too many high-usage backcourt players, come to the hopeful run-and-gun Pelicans, and tell the beat writer your favorite movie is Forrest Gump. Be quiet, my heart.

In all seriousness, hearing Hill immediately talk about winning being his favorite part of his basketball career is great. He has been to the Elite Eight with the University of Arizona, competed in a hard-fought, seven-game series with the Indiana Pacers, and won a lot of basketball games. He comes to a Pelicans team that, despite a playoff berth two seasons ago, hasn’t done a whole lot of that since Chris Paul left town. The hope is that “baby Ron Artest” will make the perfect sorts of winning plays (causing turnovers, intelligently fouling, moving the ball) that can bring the Pelicans back to the victorious promised land.