Larry Nance Jr. arrived in the Crescent City two-thirds of the way through the NBA regular season via a February trade, joining a Pelicans team dismissed by many as a non-factor in the Western Conference. After playing a key role in New Orleans reaching the 2022 playoffs, Nance was asked Friday if his three months in the Big Easy met his expectations.
“No, it’s not what I expected,” Nance responded. “It’s way better.”
While Nance was describing his own perspective, he could just as easily have been summarizing the Pelicans’ 2021-22 season as a whole.
It wasn’t reasonable to expect a team that started 1-12 to claw its way to a playoff berth, considering how few times that’s ever happened in league history.