A lot can change in just under five months. Just ask the basketball fans of New Orleans. They really needed change after what went on last season.
The 2012-2013 season was dark and gloomy for NOLA hoops. The team finished 14th in the Western Conference at 27-55, with an 11-30 road record that was also 14th in the conference. The team had trouble scoring (more on that later) and winning intraconference games. Its record against West teams was 15-37, good for – you guessed it – 14th in the West.
Promising Austin Rivers (more on him later) had a really bad rookie season, being outplayed by journeyman Roger Mason Jr. The depth wasn’t very strong. Although the team was in the top half of the league in scoring defense (14th overall) New Orleans allowed opponents to shoot 37.4 percent from three. That was 27th in the NBA and … 14th in the West.
All these disappointing days and nights took place when the team was called the Hornets, inherited from its Charlotte days. The team tried tweaking the color scheme a bit and adding a bee-themed fleur-de-lis, but it still didn’t seem right. The team needed to generate goodwill and buzz by changing its identity from the Hornets. Yes, ironic. We know.
After the regular season ended, the team finally changed its name to Pelicans, debuted new team colors and jerseys and did a nice little summer offseason roster overhaul that added two new starters to the mix.
In came Tyreke Evans from Sacramento on a four-year, $44 million contract to boost the offense. Talented All-Star point guard Jrue Holiday came over in a trade from Philadelphia, replacing Vasquez. Those are two really big additions to the starting lineup.
GM Dell Demps also improved the team’s depth, signing center Greg Stiemsma to help replace the departed Robin Lopez (promising rookie Jeff Withey will help as well) and Anthony Morrow to improve shooting off the bench. The “Stiemer” averaged 1.2 blocks and had a really good 101 defensive rating, and Morrow is a career 42.4 percent 3-point shooter.
Despite a very productive offseason from Demps, the Pelicans did surrender their first-round pick in the highly touted 2014 NBA draft to Philadelphia, and there are still a lot of questions surrounding a team looking to get a whole lot more competitive in a loaded conference.
Here are five things to watch for as training camp and the preseason quickly approaches:
1. How do the Pelicans incorporate the new pieces? Three players, two natural positions. That’s the quasi-conundrum New Orleans faces with Holiday, Evans and Eric Gordon. Unless Evans is going to be brought off the bench by coach Monty Williams, he is going to have to start at small forward. At just 6-6, Evans doesn’t have the ideal size or length to defend the position.
If Holiday-Gordon-Evans are the smalls, then Ryan Anderson would have to be a big. That leaves Anthony Davis at center. Williams probably prefers to play Davis at the four, which was much easier when the team had Lopez.
(RELATED: EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH TYREKE EVANS)
With Lopez dealt to Portland in the Evans trade, the team will probably have to go small if they want the optimal lineup on the floor. That is, unless Jason Smith and Withey play extended minutes. But forcing them into larger 
minutes just to have Davis at power forward seems counterproductive.
2. How much will Anthony Davis improve? Davis turned 20 on March 11. His 21.7 PER as a rookie was 14th in the NBA. The next youngest player in the top 14 was Blake Griffin at 24 years old.
Davis averaged 1.8 blocks, 1.2 steals, 8.2 rebounds and 13.5 points despite starting the season as a teenager. He shot 51.6 percent from the field and had .156 Win Shares per 48 minutes, not to mention his 113 offensive rating and 104 defensive rating.
It’s not hyperbole that Davis has a chance to become the best big man in the NBA. It’s just a matter of how much he will improve in his second season. Whether he will be comfortable playing more center is something we should find out.