Jose Alvarado‘s contract hasn’t been fully guaranteed but the Pelicans might as well do it sooner than later after his 38-point explosion on Sunday. Alvarado set a franchise record for a reserve in his outburst against Denver and admits he didn’t envision having this kind of impact, according to Christian Clark of the New Orleans Times Picayune.
“I would be lying if I said when I was a kid I thought this was how it’s going to be,” Alvarado said. “It’s something I can’t really explain.”
Alvarado’s $1.56MM salary for 2022/23 isn’t fully guaranteed until Jan. 10 and his $1,836,096 salary for next season is also non-guaranteed. He has become one of the league’s biggest bargains.
“I tell him all the time, ‘Jose, be yourself. When you are yourself, you are our X-factor,'” forward Zion Williamson said. “You bring energy. When we need runs, you’re there for us.”
We have more on the Pelicans:
- New Orleans’ G League affiliate, the Birmingham Squadron, has acquired Feron Hunt from the Westchester Knicks in exchange for Justin Wright-Foreman, Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News tweets. Hunt was on a two-way deal with the Knicks until he was waived last week.
- The Pelicans entered this week’s action with a 15-8 mark and their record is even better than it seems at face value, William Guillory of The Athletic writes. They rank sixth in points scored per 100 possessions and third in points allowed per 100 possessions — only Boston and Phoenix have better net ratings.
- Quality depth has made injuries an unacceptable excuse in coach Willie Green‘s mind, Guillory writes in the same piece. “When guys go down, I’ve said it before, we don’t look at it as an obstacle. For us, it’s an opportunity to go out and continue to grow as a team. Continue to build,” Green said. “Our expectations are high. We’re not there yet, but we’re continuing to build towards where we want to be.”
Jose best value contract in the Association.
Wonder if they will try Jose as a starter in place of Herb Jones.
Both guys are averting basically the same stat line, both a really good defenders more so Jones but Jose is a much more efficient shooter and bigs that energy.
For now Jones starts at the 3 with Ingram the 2 and CJ the 1 which isn’t both guys natural positions. Whereas if you had Jose in, CJ slides back to the 2 and I gram to the 3 which is their usually spots. It’s not like Jose is going to take away touches from guys, most his points come from quick transition or floor spacing. I think the starts would play faster and have more spacing which helps Zion and Ingram more. That’s the only real knock on the starters is both Zion and Herb can’t hit threes, but if you have Jose on the floor then it’s just Zion.
Then off the bench you can play Devonte Graham and Dyson Daniel’s together with Trey Murphy and Herb the forwards and Nance the big man. Think that unit would do well with Graham a scorer, Daniel’s just has that all round ability, Trey a good 3 and D shooter, Herb the defensive beast and Larry being Larry. This second unit would be good defensively with Herb and Larry leading the way and they can shoot the heck out of the ball besides Herb. Larry and Trey are both shooting 41% from 3 with Daniels and Graham both at 40%.
Just an idea but I think the starters would get a lot more quick transition buckets and due to better spacing the mid range and paint shots should also be easier. Defensively your asking more from the guys but Jose ain’t a bad defender.
Then secondly the bench unit I think functions better too and would be really strong defensively and score in bunches
Pelicans don’t have an MVP, but they have a deep roster filled with skilled players, and then get a gift in the form of Jose Alvarado. A lot of things are going right for the Pelicans this season. Just need to stay Healthy