{"id":96698,"date":"2024-09-19T20:15:06","date_gmt":"2024-09-20T00:15:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=96698"},"modified":"2024-09-19T20:15:06","modified_gmt":"2024-09-20T00:15:06","slug":"pelicans-sign-elfrid-payton-ahead-training-camp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/09\/19\/pelicans-sign-elfrid-payton-ahead-training-camp\/","title":{"rendered":"Pelicans Sign Louisiana Native Ahead Of Training Camp"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The New Orleans Pelicans are bring 30-year-old point guard <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/p\/paytoel01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Elfrid Payton<\/a> to training camp, per ESPN\u2019s Andrew Lopez.<\/p>\n<p>Payton, an eight-year NBA veteran, was a high school standout at John Ehret in Jefferson Parish. His links to Louisiana don\u2019t stop there, as he was born in Gretna, a city less than 15 minutes away from New Orleans.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Elfrid Payton has agreed to a training camp deal with the New Orleans Pelicans, sources tell ESPN.<\/p>\n<p>Payton, an Ehret graduate and Gretna native, last played in the NBA in 2022. The 30-year-old played one season with the Pelicans in 2018-19.<\/p>\n<p>Payton is represented by <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/_tandemse?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@_tandemse<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Andrew Lopez (@_Andrew_Lopez) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/_Andrew_Lopez\/status\/1836901116287545458?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">September 19, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>He\u2019ll now get a chance to play for a team that needed a lot of help at point guard last season. In fact, if he sticks with the team into the 2024-25 regular season, it\u2019ll be his second time playing for New Orleans. Payton suited up for the Pelicans in 2018-19, the franchise\u2019s last season with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/d\/davisan02.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Anthony Davis<\/a>, after <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2018\/07\/01\/elfrid-payton-agrees-new-orleans-pelicans\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">signing a one-year contract<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2>Pelicans Sign Elfrid Payton Ahead Of Training Camp<\/h2>\n<p>Payton\u2019s signing comes as a surprise, as he hasn\u2019t played in the NBA since 2021-22.<\/p>\n<p>Since then, he\u2019s primarily played in the G League, suiting up for the Indiana Mad Ants (formerly the Fort Wayne Mad Ants). In 28 games with the Mad Ants, he averaged 10.9 points, 8.3 assists, 5.6 rebounds, and 1.5 steals per game. In 2022-23, he played for Osos de Manati in Puerto Rico\u2019s BSN. Playing just five games, Payton averaged 15.0 points, 7.4 assists, 7.2 rebounds, and 1.6 steals per contest.<\/p>\n<p>As a former top-10 draft pick, Payton\u2019s last three years have put him in bust conversations. However, it\u2019s not an accurate depiction of his career.<\/p>\n<p>Payton was drafted in 2014, prior to the 3-Point Boom. At the time, his struggles to score from beyond the arc were noted, but not limiting enough to ignore his two-way playmaking. A floor general with a knack for pickpocketing opposing ball-handlers, he was actually highly valued. That\u2019s reflected in him being drafted 10th overall despite shooting 26.8 percent from 3 in college.<\/p>\n<p>At the start of his NBA career, his 3-point percentage still wasn\u2019t too problematic. He even came in fourth in Rookie of the Year voting while only converting 26.2 percent of his long bombs. However, the Golden State Warriors soon began to separate themselves with their 3-point shooting. In what\u2019s known to be a copycat league, their opponents followed suit. Eventually, that made Payton\u2019s jumper \u2014or lack of a consistent one \u2014a hindrance.<\/p>\n<h3>Will The Pelicans Keep Him?<\/h3>\n<p>It\u2019s a testament to Payton\u2019s basketball IQ, passing ability, and perimeter defense that he started 396 of 452 games (playoffs included) between 2014-15 and 2020-21. Despite not being a modern point guard, coaches didn\u2019t want to keep him off the floor. He won\u2019t be in the Pelicans\u2019 first unit next season even if he makes the team; their starting backcourt is set. Nonetheless, he\u2019d arguably be their best facilitator and on-ball defender, even with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/m\/murrade01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dejounte Murray<\/a> now in the fold.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The New Orleans Pelicans are bring 30-year-old point guard Elfrid Payton to training camp, per ESPN\u2019s Andrew Lopez. Payton, an eight-year NBA veteran, was a high school standout at John Ehret in Jefferson Parish. His links to Louisiana don\u2019t stop there, as he was born in Gretna, a city less than 15 minutes away from [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":96704,"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":[475,297,49503],"class_list":["post-96698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pelicans","category-basketball","category-nba","category-news","tag-elfrid-payton","tag-nba-free-agency","tag-nba-training-camp"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96698","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=96698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96698\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}