Throughout the early part of last season the New Orleans Pelicans searched and searched for a player that they could trust at the small forward position. The year started with John Salmons and Tyreke Evans splitting minutes there, but eventually injuries moved Evans back to point guard for the most part and left Salmons, Luke Babbitt and Darius Miller playing more minutes than they ever should for a team looking to make the playoffs.
New Orleans tried to fix things by bringing in veteran Dante Cunningham, who had played almost exclusively at power forward during his career, and placing him into the starting lineup at small forward.