New Orleans Pelicans downplay pressure to make NBA playoffs

(AP) — Anthony Davis doesn’t see the point to thinking about what might happen to the only NBA coach he’s had if the New Orleans Pelicans fail to make the playoffs again this season.
“We know we have a lot of work to do as a team this season and it starts tomorrow,” Davis said Monday, referring to Tuesday’s first practice of training camp. “We’re going to be working to make sure that guys are staying in the gym and take it a game at a time.”
Coach Monty Williams and general manager Dell Demps arrived in New Orleans in the summer of 2010. The club hasn’t been to the playoffs since 2011, when Chris Paul was still the starting point guard for a team then called the Hornets and temporarily owned by the NBA.
This will be the club’s third season under the ownership of Tom Benson, who also owns the NFL’s New Orleans Saints, and the conventional wisdom is that the 87-year-old Benson expects to win now.
Or rather, he expected to win last season — until an unusual rash of injuries took the Pelicans out of contention.
This year, it looks as if all key players will be healthy when the season starts Oct. 29, with the exception perhaps of Tyreke Evans, who has a strained hamstring that will sideline him for much of camp.
New Orleans also has added established 7-foot center Omer Asik to support Davis in the frontcourt.
“We have a lot of great pieces here,” Davis said. “We have a lot of guys who can score the ball, a lot of guys who can defend. I think we have a great team. We’ve got to take it a day at a time, a game at a time, and hopefully we move in the right direction early in the season and keep going in that direction.”
Demps said the Pelicans obviously want to make the playoffs, but added, “I don’t want to sit here and say it’s a complete failure if we don’t,” in part because the Western Conference appears to have numerous strong teams.
The key, Demps said, is for the team to show continual growth.