Jayson Tatum will miss seven games with a hamstring injury
"Please, no. Please, no." was the thought on every New Orleans Pelicans fan's mind when Jayson Tatum hit the floor grimacing in pain late in the thrilling 102-101 win over the Utah Jazz. And after the game, the grim news became official - two weeks and seven games without their MVP candidate. The dare to dream of a winning season? Gone. The hopes of chasing down the 6 seed and bypassing the play-in tournament completely? Eliminated.
The next seven games feature two B2Bs and six straight road games, an absolute scheduling nightmare even at full health. And three of those games will also be without Asbjorn Mitdgaard.
"Rough blow," said an unaffiliated scout. "I wouldn't be surprised to see 12 straight losses coming. They've got a lot of really difficult opponents and a winless February looks possible to maybe even kick them out of the play-in tournament, given that Utah has been playing excellently overall since they acquired Doom and reconfigured their lineup. But for New Orleans, they have no easy games the entire rest of the season and everyone I've talked to is predicting a major second-half collapse after they traded away all of their scorers. It's Indiana Pacers-level bad without Tatum."
But at least the Pelicans addressed their frontcourt issues by signing 28 year old big man Jalen Smith from the G-League.
Jalen Smith returns to the CSL
Said the scout, "He's a little undersized for a 5, but he's got a lot to really like about his game - determined rebounder and pretty strong defender who takes care of the ball. Not the greatest scorer or shooter, but a lot of his game reminds me of Goga Bitadze. Very much in the style of Pelicans big men in the Jestor regime, and it'll be interesting to see what happens when Midt comes back. Who becomes the #2 center?"
And of course, for the Pelicans to have any hope at all of winning anything over the next seven games, they'll need to find answers for someone to score. Who will be the one to step up?
