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Down in New Orleans, a young superstar’s waiting in the wings, and we’re not talking Trombone Shorty . Actually, Anthony Davis is more wings in waiting, a 21-year-old specimen with a 7-foot-6 wingspan who belongs on the short list of legitimate NBA MVP candidates and means everything to Big Easy basketball. A walking double-double with the league’s most prolific shot-blocking prowess, Davis alone makes the Pelicans appointment television, but it’s his supporting cast — acquired this summer both by trade and from the infirmary — that will ultimately determine whether we’re still watching come late April. Davis averaged 20.8 points (58.2 TS%), 10.0 rebounds and 4.4 combined blocks/steals last season — submitting a 26.5 PER that ranked behind only Kevins Durant and Love and LeBron James — and yet New Orleans finished 34-48 in part because of season-ending injuries to Ryan Anderson (neck), Jrue Holiday (tibia) and Eric Gordon (knee). Even Davis missed 16 games with hand and back problems. All appear healthy, save for Tyreke Evans, whose hamstring injury is an ominous start to 2014-15 for another shallow pod of Pelicans, even if he’s scheduled to return around the start of the regular season. [ Yahoo Sports Fantasy Basketball: Sign up and join a league today! ] Still in charge of basketball operations after sending Greivis Vasquez and Robin Lopez — two 20-somethings who contributed to a pair of playoff runs in 2013-14 — for the right to sign Evans to a four-year, $44 million deal, Dell Demps finally replaced the self-described and under-appreciated “Screech Powers of the NBA .” The Pelicans sent their 2015 first-round pick to Houston in exchange for 7-footer Omer Asik, whose rim-protecting ability ranked only slightly behind that of Lopez last season. Of course, Demps has also now filled holes left by both Vasquez and Al-Farouq Aminu, who signed a two-year minimum contract with the Mavericks this summer, with a 34-year-old John Salmons and Jimmer Fredette, the sharpshooting former top-10 pick who couldn’t crack the Kings rotation. After leading the then Hornets to the playoffs in his first season at the helm, New Orleans coach Monty Williams has won roughly a third of his games since the departure of Chris Paul and David West. In addition to ranking among the worst defenses in the league each of the past two seasons, the Pelicans have played at an awfully slow pace, and that should be cause for concern, since Monty’s best player thrived in transition on Team USA this summer and headlines a roster among the NBA’s youngest. Once again, the playoff potential falls on the considerable shoulders of Davis and the health of his fellow top-six rotation players. In other words, little has changed. The Pelicans are still waiting in the wings.
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