The New Orleans Pelicans are an American professional basketball team based in New Orleans. The Pelicans compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Southwest Division of the Western Conference. The team plays its home games at Smoothie King Center.
Glenn Anton "Doc" Rivers is an American professional basketball coach and former player who is the head coach of the Milwaukee Bucks of the National Basketball Association (NBA). An NBA player for 14 seasons, he was an NBA All-Star and was named one of the 15 Greatest Coaches in NBA History.
Joseph Leynard Smith is an American former professional basketball player. A power forward, he played for 12 teams in the National Basketball Association (NBA) during his 16-year career.
Jarrett Matthew Jack is an American professional basketball coach and former player and an assistant coach for the Detroit Pistons of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He attended four high schools in North Carolina, Maryland and Massachusetts before playing collegiately at Georgia Tech. He was selected with the 22nd overall pick in the 2005 NBA draft by the Denver Nuggets, before playing with the Portland Trail Blazers, Indiana Pacers, Toronto Raptors, New Orleans Hornets, Golden State Warriors, Cleveland Cavaliers, Brooklyn Nets, New Orleans Pelicans, and New York Knicks.
Tyronn Jamar Lue is an American professional basketball coach and former player who is the head coach of the Los Angeles Clippers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He formerly served as the head coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers, helping them win their first and only NBA title.
Louis Tyrone Williams is an American former professional basketball player. He was drafted directly out of high school by the Philadelphia 76ers with the 45th overall pick in the 2005 NBA draft. He is a 3-time NBA Sixth Man of the Year. As of March 2019, he is the NBA's career leader in points off the bench, and has played the most career games off the bench, surpassing Dell Curry's record in February 2022.
Marreese Akeem Speights is an American former professional basketball player who last played for the Guangzhou Loong Lions of the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA). He played college basketball for the Florida Gators, where he was a freshman member of their NCAA national championship team in 2007. The Philadelphia 76ers selected him with the 16th overall pick in the 2008 NBA draft.
Paccelis Morlende is a French basketball coach for U-17 team of the Hermine de Nantes Atlantique of the LNB Pro B and a former professional basketball player.
Craig Lee Brackins is an American former professional basketball player.
The 2003–04 NBA season was the 76ers' 65th season, and their 55th in the National Basketball Association. During the offseason, the Sixers acquired All-Star forward Glenn Robinson from the Atlanta Hawks and rookie Kyle Korver, who was drafted by the New Jersey Nets in the 2003 NBA draft. After Larry Brown left to become head coach of the Detroit Pistons, the Sixers hired Randy Ayers as his replacement. However, at midseason, Ayers was fired after a 21–31 start, and interim head coach Chris Ford took over for the rest of the season. Superstar guard Allen Iverson had a rough year in which he had clashed with coaches and skipped a number of practices. Despite Iverson playing only 48 games due to injuries, he still was voted to start in the 2004 NBA All-Star Game. Robinson finished second on the team in scoring averaging 16.6 points per game, but played just 42 games due to ankle and elbow injuries.
The New Orleans Pelicans are a professional basketball team in the National Basketball Association (NBA). The team commenced play in 2002 after the NBA granted founder George Shinn an expansion franchise to play in New Orleans. The Pelicans' establishment was unusual compared to most modern expansion teams in that New Orleans' roster was not stocked through an expansion draft. Instead, Shinn transferred the entire basketball organization of his former team, the Charlotte Hornets, to his new franchise.
The 2014–15 NBA season was the 69th season of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The NBA draft took place on June 26, 2014, at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, where Andrew Wiggins was selected first overall by the Cleveland Cavaliers. The regular season began on October 28, 2014, when the defending NBA champion San Antonio Spurs hosted the first game against the Dallas Mavericks at AT&T Center in San Antonio. The 2015 NBA All-Star Game was played on February 15, 2015, at Madison Square Garden in New York City, with the West defeating the East 163–158. Oklahoma City's Russell Westbrook won the NBA All-Star Game Most Valuable Player Award. The regular season ended on April 15, 2015, and the playoffs began on April 18, 2015, and ended with the 2015 NBA Finals on June 16, 2015, after the Golden State Warriors defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers in six games to win their fourth NBA title and first since 1975. The Charlotte Bobcats played their first official game as the Charlotte Hornets since 2002.
The 2015 NBA draft was held on June 25, 2015, at Barclays Center in Brooklyn. It was televised nationally in the U.S. by ESPN. National Basketball Association (NBA) teams took turns selecting amateur U.S. college basketball players and other eligible players, including international players. The draft lottery took place on May 19, 2015.
Larry Donnell Nance Jr. is an American professional basketball player for the Atlanta Hawks of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Wyoming Cowboys, where he was considered one of the best big men in the Mountain West Conference after leading the 2014–15 team to their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2002. Nance was drafted 27th overall in the 2015 NBA draft by the Los Angeles Lakers. He became part of the team's roster rebuild focusing around younger players. During the 2017–18 season, Nance was traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers, with whom he reached the 2018 NBA Finals. During the 2021 offseason, he was dealt to the Portland Trail Blazers, who traded him to the New Orleans Pelicans midway through the 2021–22 season.
The 2018 NBA Draft was held on June 21, 2018, at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. National Basketball Association (NBA) teams took turns selecting amateur United States college basketball players and other eligible players, including international players. It was televised nationally by ESPN. State Farm was the presenting sponsor of the NBA draft for the seventh consecutive year. This draft was the last to use the original weighted lottery system that gave teams near the bottom of the NBA draft better odds at the top three picks of the draft while teams higher up had worse odds in the process; the rule was agreed upon by the NBA on September 28, 2017, but would not be implemented until the 2019 draft. It was also considered the final year where undrafted college underclassmen were forced to begin their professional careers early; on August 8, 2018, the NCAA announced that players who declared for the NBA draft and were not selected would have the opportunity to return to their school for at least another year. With the last year of what was, at the time, the most recent lottery system, the Phoenix Suns won the first overall pick on May 15, 2018, with the Sacramento Kings at the second overall pick and the Atlanta Hawks at third overall pick. The Suns' selection was their first No. 1 overall selection in franchise history. They used the selection on the Bahamian center Deandre Ayton from the nearby University of Arizona.
The 2019 NBA draft was held on June 20, 2019. It took place at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. National Basketball Association (NBA) teams took turns selecting amateur United States college basketball players and other eligible players, including international players. It was televised nationally on ESPN. State Farm was the presenting sponsor of the NBA draft for the eighth consecutive year. This draft was the first to feature a new weighted lottery system in which the three worst teams each had a 14 percent chance of winning the lottery; these teams were the New York Knicks, Cleveland Cavaliers, and Phoenix Suns. The lottery took place on May 14, during the NBA playoffs. Three of the four teams who held the top four picks of the draft this year rose up from at least six spots in the lottery, including the New Orleans Pelicans, who won the first pick with 6 percent odds. The Pelicans used that pick on Duke forward Zion Williamson . After Williamson, his Duke teammates R.J. Barrett and Cam Reddish was drafted in the top 10 as part of the Big 3 from Duke. This draft included the first Japanese player to be selected in the first round, as well as the first Angolan player to be selected.
Jaxson Reed Hayes is an American professional basketball player for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Texas Longhorns.
The 2020 NBA draft was held on November 18, 2020. The draft was originally scheduled to be held at Barclays Center in Brooklyn on June 25, but due to the ongoing at the time COVID-19 pandemic, it was instead conducted at ESPN's facilities in Bristol, Connecticut, with the event held via videoconferencing. National Basketball Association (NBA) teams took turns selecting amateur United States college basketball players and other eligible players, including international players. It was televised nationally on ESPN. The draft lottery was originally scheduled to take place on May 19, 2020, but due in part to the 2020 NBA Bubble, it was rescheduled to take place on August 20, 2020, instead. This was the first draft since 1975 to not be held in June and was also the second to be done later than that month after the inaugural 1947 draft, which was conducted in July by the NBA's predecessor, the Basketball Association of America (BAA). This draft also featured the lack of a proper "green room" due to pandemic restrictions. The first pick was made by the Minnesota Timberwolves, who selected Anthony Edwards out of Georgia.
The 2021 NBA draft, the 75th edition of the National Basketball Association's annual draft, was held on July 29, 2021, at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. The NBA draft returned to Brooklyn after the previous year's draft was held through videoconferencing at ESPN Studios in Bristol, Connecticut due to the COVID-19 pandemic. With the first overall pick, the Detroit Pistons selected Cade Cunningham. The NBA used a "ceremonial pick" for the late Terrence Clarke, between the 14th and 15th pick of the draft.
