Arrived together in New Orleans from Portland last February, Larry Nance Jr. and CJ McCollum have integrated very well into their new team.
Qualified in the playoffs after a stunning second half of the season, the Pelicans managed to find the right formula to build the future, by integrating into their workforce, talented but young and inexperienced, two “veterans” of the circuit, accustomed to the playoffs and in able to contribute on the floor with a substantial volume of play.
In fact, in the opinion of Larry Nance Jr, this New Orleans team is an improved version of the young Lakers squad in which he began his career, with Brandon Ingram of which he is again the teammate, Lonzo Ball , Jordan Clarkson, Kyle Kuzma, Julius Randle and D’Angelo Russell.
“In Los Angeles, we were dropped, without veterans, without leadership”
Why “improved”? Because unlike the Angelinos between 2015 and 2018, these young talents of the Pelicans are now guided by veterans. And that makes all the difference.
” I hadn’t met such a talented group since our famous group in Los Angeles. But here, there are the veterans to surround the young people. […] In Los Angeles, we were dropped, without veterans, without leadership. We had talent but we didn’t know how to exploit it. This team [des Pelicans] knows how to exploit it » thus declared the 29-year-old strong winger.
The younger ones agree. ” They had a big impact on us. Jaxson Hayes confided then. ” Two veterans with big resumes. Larry played the Finals [en 2018, avec Cleveland], CJ is the president of the players’ association. They teach us things, and not only about basketball, also about how to behave like a pro. »
A professionalism also noticed by Zion Williamson: “ After we won that big game in Phoenix [le Game 2 du premier tour des playoffs], our first reaction was to celebrate. CJ calmed our passions and told us to go to the locker room, because we still had work to do. I respect that mentality a lot. »
