WESTERN CONFERENCE SOUTHWEST DIVISION New Orleans It’s year five of the Monty Williams era and the Pelicans, who are 128-184 under him, seek their first trip to the playoffs since 2011, when they lost in the first round after a 46-36 regular season. Despite the milestone usually associated with results, New Orleans general manager Dell Demps is adamant that this isn’t a make-or-break year for Williams in terms of his job security. “I think it’s important for us to have sustained success. We don’t want to sacrifice everything just to make the playoffs this year,” Demps said. “Obviously, we want to make the playoffs, but I think the most important thing is become a good team and grow.” The Pelicans lost 262 games to injury of illness last season with five different players: Ryan Anderson, Anthony Davis, Tyreke Evans, Eric Gordon and Jrue Holiday accounting for 151 of those, so staying healthy this year would be a good start. With Davis, the Pelicans have a legit future MVP candidate on their roster. Davis is quickly ascending into a dynamic two-way player who can singlehandedly carry a team into contention. As high as he goes, so goes the Pelicans hopes. DEFENSE Improving their overall team defense and being stronger on the glass were top priorities for New Orleans this offseason. And the Pelicans feel that adding free agent big man Omer Asik should help both areas. “We felt like we had to become a better defensive team and a better rebounding team. That was one of the reasons why we acquired Omar Asik,” Demps said. “We think that he’ll partner up well with Anthony Davis, Ryan Anderson and our other bigs. I think we’ll have a really good frontcourt. We have some dynamic backcourt players but it’s going to be important for them to play together, defend and also rebound. I think those are going to be big keys for us this season.” Asik sees the defensive system employed by Williams as similar to the one he saw in Chicago under Tom Thibodeau, which is a big positive. “Just trying to learn this system, starting to know teammates and how they play,” Asik said. “So far, it’s been going good. I’ll try to do my best. I have to improve on the offensive end.” Anthony Davis
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