Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports
The New Orleans Pelicans were expected to make huge strides forward this season after having two of the top 10 picks in the 2012 NBA Draft. New Orleans didn’t take any steps forward though as the Pelicans finished 27-55, but the team does have one player who should be starting in Ryan Anderson, however. Anderson averaged 16.2 points a game this season mostly coming off the bench.
Anderson proved what he could do in playing in 81 games while starting just 22 of those. There isn’t a ton of talent on this New Orleans team in my opinion. Eric Gordon is a solid player along with Anthony Davis but there really isn’t much else around them. Anderson is the type of player that could easily find himself being a small forward even at 6-10. He gets inside a lot and rebounds well with over six of those per game on average.
I don’t understand why you wouldn’t want Anderson starting. I know that you need solid bench players too and Anderson was just that for this team but I want my best players on the court to start and finish the game. He hit a career high in points per game this season and while some of his numbers did go down, Anderson proved he belongs at the NBA level.
New Orleans will have another lottery pick coming up and maybe it will bring more help to this roster but Anderson should be a bigger part of the game plan next year.
Andy Schmidt is a columnist/writer for RantSports. Follow him on Twitter @ASchmidtSports, like his Facebook page or add him to your network on Google.
