Unless there are some unknown promises in place, Pelicans training camp should be a lot of fun for Monty Williams.
Coaches are always looking for ways to foster competitiveness, and nothing does that like jobs up for grabs. Players will go to the wall to get an NBA contract, and that attitude can spread throughout the team.
New Orleans has 12 players with guaranteed contracts plus Luke Babbitt, Darius Miller, Patric Young, Kevin Jones and Vernon Macklin competing for one to three open roster spots. And if that wasn’t enough of a pool to choose from, the Pelicans will add another player who surely didn’t receive a full guarantee – Dionte Christmas.
Shams Charania of RealGM:
https://twitter.com/ShamsCharania/status/509829212765970432
Christmas, who had played overseas since going undrafted out of Temple in 2009, made his NBA debut with the Suns last season. He played extremely limited minutes in Phoenix, but the 6-foot-5 guard has some scoring skills, though perhaps not the athleticism necessary to convert them to the NBA level.
The beauty is, he’ll have a chance to prove himself.
