#CrystalBasketball: Ranking the New Orleans Pelicans After 2019-20

How does every NBA player stack up coming out of the 2019-20 playoffs?

That’s the question NBA Math staff members and contributors sought to answer, ranking each and every player in the Association on a 1-to-12 scale and then seeing who emerged with the highest averages. The distant past was irrelevant. Long-term potential doesn’t matter. Only the level at which we expected them to play right after the conclusion of 2019-20 matters, assuming health for those currently healthy and full recoveries from those presently injured, so long as they logged even a single minute during the regular season or playoffs.

All players—classified by the team for which they last appeared, even if they were since waived or released in some alternative fashion—were graded on the following scale by each evaluator, and ties between players with identical averages were broken by sorting the scores from best to worst and propping up the men who had the highest mark at any point in the top-down progression:

Shouldn’t Get Minutes
End-of-Bench Pieces
Depth Pieces
High-End Backups
Low-End Starters
Solid Starters
High-End Starters, Non-All-Stars
All-Star Candidates
All-NBA Candidates, Non-MVP Candidates
Lesser MVP Candidates
MVP Frontrunners
Best Player in the League (only one player could earn this grade on each ballot)

Now, for the New Orleans Pelicans:

Shouldn’t Get Minutes: 1.00 to 1.49

17. Josh Gray: 1.21

16. Zylan Cheatham: 1.43

End-of-Bench Pieces: 1.50 to 2.49

15. Sindarius Thornwell: 1.71

14. Jahlil Okafor: 2.29

Depth Pieces: 2.50 to 3.49

13. Nickeil Alexander-Walker: 2.57

12. Frank Jackson: 2.57

11. Kenrich Williams: 2.79

10. Nicolo Melli: 3.14

9. E’Twaun Moore: 3.36

High-End Backups: 3.50 to 4.49

8. Jaxson Hayes: 3.5

Low-End Starters: 4.50 to 5.49

7. Josh Hart: 4.5

6. JJ Redick: 5.36

5. Lonzo Ball: 5.43

Solid Starters: 5.50 to 6.49

4. Derrick Favors: 5.71

High-End Starters: 6.50 to 7.49

3. Zion Williamson: 7.21

All-Star Candidates: 7.50 to 8.49

2. Jrue Holiday: 7.57

Brandon Ingram: 7.64

All-NBA Candidates: 8.50 to 9.49

None

Lesser MVP Candidates: 9.50 to 10.49

None

MVP Frontrunners: 10.50 to 12.00

None

Many thanks to the following people for their participation in this project: Arjun Baradwaj, Tara Biggs, Ryan Blackburn, Jacob Bourne, Tony East, Dan Favale, Adam Fromal, Katie Heindl, Jordan McGillis, Tom Rende, Adam Spinella, Jordan Spyropoulos, Bryan Toporek, Matt Way and Nate Wolf.