NBA Season Preview: Zion Williamson & the New Orleans Pelicans

I've never really liked New Orleans as a team. You see, some jerk named George Shinn gave my hometown area the Charlotte Hornets when I was a kid. Then he snatched them away like a little brat and took them to the Big Easy.

There was a couple years when they had Chris Paul and Tyson Chandler, the original Lob City tandem, that they were kind of an interesting team. But they were still called the Hornets and that just wasn't right.

In actual fact, the fact that the New Orleans franchise gave back the Hornets tag to His Airness' franchise in Charlotte and did not receive in return their old Jazz moniker from the team in Salt Lake City will remain one of the great mysteries of the NBA. I'll just never understand why there is Jazz in Utah. Because there is no jazz in Utah. But that's another story.

This year is the first year I'll be paying attention to the Pelicans squad from Crescent City. Why?

Zion Williamson is the most exciting player to hit the NBA since LeBron James in 2003.

But here's a crazy difference. LeBron's running mates for his inaugural season were Carlos Boozer, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Jeff McInnis, and Eric Williams.

For the Iron Lion Zion, whom I have written about previously, he should have a much more intriguing group of partners.

Thanks to trading their former superstar college phenom Anthony "Unibrow" Davis to the Lakers, the Pellies will be sporting a sleek lineup of interesting young players with a ton of potential - Lonzo Ball, Josh Hart, and Brandon Ingram (from left to right).

Alongside those young guys, Trajan Langdon has done a very fine job in his rookie offseason as a head GM. He probably made two of the most underrated moves of the offseason sniping JJ Redick as a free agent from the unlucky-bounce-or-two-away-from-a-championship 76ers and trading for Derrick Favors from the steady-eddie Jazz.

Plus, if you're like me and you admire the shit out of Coach K, you gotta love this team for its Duke roots. Not only do Zion and GM Langdon bleed Devil Blue, but so do Ingram, Redick, and backup forward Jahlil Okafor. That's a strong foundation for excellence if you ask me.

All of that and we still haven't mentioned who will probably be their best statistical player next year - Jrue Holiday. The man is a beast. In 67 games played last year, Jrue averaged 21.2 PPG, 5.0 RPG, 7.7 APG, 1.6 SPG and 0.8 BPG.

If I had to guess at the moment, the Pelicans' best starting lineup will look like this:

• PG Jrue Holiday
• SG J.J. Redick
• SF Brandon Ingram
• PF Zion Williamson
• C Derrick Favors

There's a few question marks, particularly Ingram's health and Zion's weight, but that lineup should be good enough for a bottom-half playoff seed in the Western Conference, especially when you consider the quality coming off the bench in Lonzo Ball, E'Twaun Moore, rookie Jaxson Hayes, Josh Hart, and the aforementioned Okafor.

Like I said above, it's an intriguing mix of up-and-coming players, quality reserves, and stalwart veterans. Zion for sure will have a much better team than LeBron did in his first year. It'll be interesting to see if he can match the King's 20/5/5 rookie numbers.