The New Orleans Pelicans were not a good shooting team last year, and as a result, their spacing often (and offense as a whole) waned because of it. This off-season, they needed to make sure they did something about that, especially since they opted not to trade Zion Williamson to move up in the draft for Scoot Henderson. The more spacing you can get a paint punisher like Williamson, the better.
And on the night of the 2023 NBA Draft, the Pelicans did everything in their power to remedy this issue. It started with them drafting UConn Huskies’ sharpshooter Jordan Hawkins with the 14th overall pick in the draft.