{"id":108030,"date":"2024-11-20T10:03:44","date_gmt":"2024-11-20T15:03:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=108030"},"modified":"2024-11-20T10:04:38","modified_gmt":"2024-11-20T15:04:38","slug":"pelicans-sign-free-agent-point-guard-elfrid-payton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/11\/20\/pelicans-sign-free-agent-point-guard-elfrid-payton\/","title":{"rendered":"Pelicans Patch Up Point Guard Hole With Free Agent Signing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The New Orleans Pelicans\u2019 disjointed offense needed a splint.<\/p>\n<h2>Pelicans Patch Up Point Guard Hole With Elfrid Payton Signing<\/h2>\n<p>On Wednesday, the Pelicans agreed to sign free agent point guard <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/p\/paytoel01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Elfrid Payton<\/a>, per ESPN senior insider Shams Charania.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Free agent guard Elfrid Payton has agreed to a deal with the New Orleans Pelicans, his agent Darrell Comer of Tandem told ESPN. Payton attended training camp with the Pelicans and now rejoins the team amid a wave of injuries. <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/REROvFohX2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/REROvFohX2<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ShamsCharania\/status\/1859220169672847431?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">November 20, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The 10th overall pick in the 2014 NBA Draft, Payton is intimately familiar with both the organization and the locale. Born just outside of New Orleans, he was raised and attended college in Louisiana. In 2018-19, Payton played for his home state Pelicans after signing a one-year deal, averaging 10.6 points, 7.6 assists, and 1.0 steal per contest.<\/p>\n<h3>S.O.S.<\/h3>\n<p>As of this morning, the Pelicans rank 29th in points per game (103.7) and 27th in offensive rating (107.6).<\/p>\n<p>This can\u2019t be all attributed to their point guard play. For starters, two key scorers \u2014<a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/w\/willizi01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Zion Williamson<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/m\/mccolcj01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">CJ McCollum<\/a> \u2014have been available for less than half of the season. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/m\/murphtr02.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Trey Murphy III<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/h\/hawkijo01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jordan Hawkins<\/a>, who are also important to the offense, have been in and out of the lineup as well.<\/p>\n<p>Yet, New Orleans is also 25th in assists per game (23.6) and 19th in turnovers per game (15.9).<\/p>\n<p>With <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/m\/murrade01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dejounte Murray<\/a> and now <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/a\/alvarjo01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jose Alvarado<\/a> out, the Pelicans are forced to rely upon players who are less equipped to run an offense. While Boston\u2019s in <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/11\/06\/pelicans-brandon-boston-jr-making-most-new-opportunity\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">the midst of a breakout<\/a>, he\u2019s out of his wheelhouse when asked to constantly coordinate the offense. That\u2019s also true of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/i\/ingrabr01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Brandon Ingram<\/a>, who\u2019s also having <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/11\/17\/garland-lavine-ingram-have-in-common\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">a strong season<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>If McCollum or Williamson were to return before Murray, that would help matters. However, even then, the Pelicans would still be lacking a natural table-setter. Payton isn\u2019t a player who can make some of the passes and reads but all of them. He won\u2019t be the center of their system, but he\u2019ll make his teammates better by getting them good looks.<\/p>\n<p>At least that\u2019s the case if they decide to take the elf off the shelf.<\/p>\n<h3>Taking Elf Off The Shelf<\/h3>\n<p>Payton\u2019s last <em>real<\/em> NBA game was in May 2022.<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s played competitively since then. In fact, he suited up for New Orleans in <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/10\/17\/pelicans-elfrid-payton-among-recently-waived-players\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">the 2024-25 preseason<\/a>. In two contests, he averaged 3.0 points, 5.0 assists, 4.0 rebounds, and 1.0 block in 10.3 minutes per game. While that\u2019s not a lot of time to make an impression, Payton has the benefit of being Pelicans head coach Willie Green\u2019s former teammate.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Willie Green on Elfrid Payton, end of game situations | New Orleans Pelicans\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/eVUP0Hk0b8Q?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>After New Orleans brought Payton in on a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2018\/07\/01\/elfrid-payton-agrees-new-orleans-pelicans\/\" target=\"_self\">training camp deal<\/a>, Green lauded his leadership and ability to run an offense.<\/p>\n<p>That being said, Green\u2019s words hold weight, but don\u2019t shed light on Payton\u2019s future role. Teams have a habit of signing players to the fringes of the roster and not giving them run.<\/p>\n<p>In this case, there\u2019s a clear need for Payton\u2019s skillset, which helps his case for regular playing time. Frankly, New Orleans\u2019 point guard situation is so pitiful they bay feel duty-bound to give Payton a chance. Nonetheless, the NBA is a \u2018what have you done for me lately\u2019 league. One way or another, he\u2019ll have to earn his trust.<\/p>\n<p>Maybe it\u2019ll come after practices or in spot minutes. However, it\u2019s unlikely to be based purely on what he did in the preseason or even <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/zAUWJZBREZY?si=lQEhPDtW2NCe-90a\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">his all-league season<\/a> with the Fort Wayne Mad Ants in 2023-24.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The New Orleans Pelicans\u2019 disjointed offense needed a splint. Pelicans Patch Up Point Guard Hole With Elfrid Payton Signing On Wednesday, the Pelicans agreed to sign free agent point guard Elfrid Payton, per ESPN senior insider Shams Charania. Free agent guard Elfrid Payton has agreed to a deal with the New Orleans Pelicans, his agent [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":108043,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33,1608,62,3],"tags":[1262,475,49120],"class_list":["post-108030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pelicans","category-basketball","category-nba","category-news","tag-dejounte-murray","tag-elfrid-payton","tag-willie-green"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108030"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108030\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}