The Pelicans walked away from Tuesday night with a 116-110 preseason win over the Thunder, but the box score did little to quiet the unease around New Orleans’ frontcourt.
Yes, the comeback was real. The Pelicans erased a 15-point halftime deficit with an 18-0 second-half surge and finished the job. But the bigger story was how shaky things looked before that rally ever got rolling, especially with Oklahoma City sitting most of its top names, including Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Chet Holgrem, Jalen Williams, and other key role players.
New Orleans, by contrast, had its main pieces out there and still spent much of the night chasing the game. The same old problems showed up again: not enough three-point shooting, and not enough resistance inside.
That is where Yves Missi comes in, and where the concern really starts to build. All summer, executive vice president of basketball Joe Dumars and newly hired head coach Jamahl Mosley talked up the young center as a player ready to break through.
They even pointed to what Missi did with the Cameroon National Team this offseason, saying it reminded them of Hakeem Olajuwon. In that stretch, the 6-foot-11 big man averaged 18 points, 11 rebounds, and 2.7 blocks per game.
Against Oklahoma City, though, Missi looked nowhere near that level. He went 1/7 from the field, scored six points, grabbed seven rebounds, and finished minus-20 in his minutes. Across from him, Thunder rookie Aday Mara was the one doing damage inside, going a perfect 5/5 from the floor and posting 12 points and nine rebounds in 18 minutes.
That kind of mismatch is exactly what should make New Orleans uneasy. The Pelicans did not add much this summer to solve their size issue, and they were banking on Missi taking a major step forward. Tuesday night suggested that the same limitations from last season may still be there.
The problem is not just on the defensive end, either. Missi does not stretch the floor, and when the lob threat is taken away, he still has trouble creating his own shot.
That matters for a Pelicans lineup that opened with Missi, Zion Williamson, Herb Jones, Trey Murphy III, and Dejounte Murray. With Murphy III the only true, consistent shooter in that group, New Orleans was asking for near-perfect execution in the half court.
It did not get that. The starters shot only 36% from the field and knocked down just five threes. The bench, with Bennedict Mathurin scoring 13 points, supplied the spark that flipped the game in the second half and carried the Pelicans to the win.
Missi’s rough night also fits a larger pattern. His starts dropped from 67 games as a rookie to 14 last season, and his development remains tied to how much he can clean up the raw edges in his game. He came to organized basketball late, starting around age 15, and that lack of long-term experience still shows up in stretches.
For now, coach Mosley said before the game not to read too much into the lineups, calling it a fluid process through preseason and into the season. But if Tuesday was a preview of what Missi looks like against lesser competition, New Orleans still has a problem to solve.
The Pelicans get another shot quickly, traveling to Miami on Thursday to face the Heat. After this one, they could use a cleaner showing from Missi and a lot more from the starting group if they want any momentum heading toward the regular season in two weeks.
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