NBA Power Rankings: Lakers eyeing big move; Clippers are broken?

21. New Orleans Pelicans

Over the past couple of seasons, the injury gods have not been kind to the New Orleans Pelicans. As you would expect, the Pelicans are once again battling an early season injury that has hurt the team’s ability to play on a consistent basis through the first month of the year. The big question is whether or not that’s the big reason this team has begun to perform under expectation so far this season.

The absence of McCollum has certainly hurt and they hope he is back sooner rather than later, but the Pelicans still have some very big questions they must answer. It also appears that the Pelicans may have found something special in rookie Jordan Hawkins; he’s averaging 13 points and four rebounds on 36 percent shooting from 3-point range.

New Orleans hasn’t had a great start to the season, but it hasn’t been a poor one either. If this team gets hot, which they have the ability to, they could easily finish as a top 6 seed in the Western Conference.