There was plenty of conversation in recent weeks that New Orleans center Alexis Ajinca had gotten himself into excellent shape and looked primed to begin 2016-17, but it was probably easy to dismiss that as just talk. There are plenty of instances in the NBA where summer optimism about a player doesn’t carry over in the fall to the hardwood.
Given an initial chance Wednesday night to show what he can do – in front of several hundred Pelicans fans at the Smoothie King Center – the 7-foot-2 native of France performed very well, finishing with 18 points in a 40-minute intrasquad scrimmage.