There’s no way of summing up the New Orleans Pelicans season in a way that gets around the fact that the season was a disappointment in the Big Easy.
With the Pelicans failing to clear their preseason win total of 44.5 by 2.5 games (finishing the year with a 42-40 mark) and franchise cornerstone Zion Williamson missing 53 games with injuries, it’s no surprise that the season was a bit of letdown for Pelicans fans.
If you do some digging, you’ll find that there was a sliver of a silver lining for the Willie Green-coached club, however, with a pair of Pelicans finishing in the top-12 leaguewide when it comes to on-court value during the year.
Most Underrated NBA Players of 2022-23 Season
For this study, LouisianaBets.com utilized Basketball-Reference.com to find the cap hit and point shares of every NBA player during the 2022-23 NBA regular season. After doing the math of the $ per point share for each player in the league, we determined the 25 most value-driven players from this season. Salary and point shares were included for all teams the player was on during the 2022-23 season.
Why Murphy and Jones Were Great Values For Pelicans In 2022-23
The Pelicans may have failed to live up to their preseason hype, but they did find a way to land two of their players on the NBA’s value leaderboard.
New Orleans finished as one of five teams to have multiple players in the top-25 of our value leaderboard, along with the Grizzlies, who had three players, and the Wolves, Jazz, and Knicks, who had two players apiece.
Between Murphy — who finished eighth on our list with 7.6 point shares and a dollar per point share of $421,911 this year — and Jones (who finished 11th overall with 4.2 point shares and a $ per point share of $425,500), the Pelicans were well represented on the NBA’s value leaderboard.
On the flip side, 11 NBA teams didn’t have a single player make the top-25, including six that made the NBA Playoffs (Atlanta, Milwaukee, Cleveland, Sacramento, Brooklyn, and Phoenix), showing how far the Pelicans made it with such a youthful roster in 2022-23.
