The job of an NBA G League team is to develop players and do so within the system utilized by the parent club. And if the understudies win a lot of games along the way, that makes things even better.
As the 2023-24 season approaches, the Birmingham Squadron – the New Orleans Pelicans’ affiliate – has the tools in place to check all of those boxes.
“I think one of the things that’s the most important for us is you have to be at a point in your evolution where you can really use the G League team,” Pelicans executive vice president of basketball operations David Griffin said earlier this week. “What we’ve had going on in the past, unfortunately, some of it was injury-induced. And then some of it was just a young team developing the guys that you would ordinarily like to say will be staples with the Squadron, but have been playing meaningful minutes with us.
“And I think we’ve reached the point now where we have a level of depth of quality young players that we can feel really comfortable assigning, guys like (guard) Dyson Daniels and (guard) Kira Lewis. I think we’re in a place now where we’ll be able to assign young players of that ilk to be really positive players.”
T.J. Saint is entering his second season as head coach of the Squadron, and spent Saturday morning overseeing local player tryouts at the Lakeshore Foundation.
“We’re extremely balanced as a team,” Saint said. “Technically, right now, we have two roster spots to fill. One of those will for sure be filled through the (G League) draft (on October 28). And to be quite honest, the second could come very well come from the local player tryout here. We’ve got 60-plus players signed up and I really, really appreciate guys who are going after their dream or goal, and honestly, who believe in themselves. It’s just really cool to see.”
This season G League teams will be allotted three two-way players. Guard Dereon Seabron was the Squadron’s lone active two-way player in 2022-23 since power forward E.J. Liddell was sidelined by a torn ACL and missed all of last year. Seabron averaged 18.4 points per game for Birmingham during the regular season and 14.3 points during the in-season tournament (Showcase Cup) portion of the schedule.
“What’s really neat for us is we’re finally at a point in our development where the players that we have on two-way contracts we anticipate we’re going to be able to send to Birmingham,” Griffin said. “(Center) Liam Robbins, who was the SEC Defensive Player of the Year at Vanderbilt, is a player that we anticipate will be with us at that point. He’s certainly going to be part of training camp … he’s looked tremendous here in our gym.
“(Center) Trey Jemison, who finished last season with UAB and Coach (Andy) Kennedy, will be coming back with us, and both of those guys will add some size to the Squadron team. Since Zach Hankins (now with Hapoel Jerusalem of the Israeli Basketball Premier league) left us, that’s something we’ve sorely needed.”
Griffin adds that the relationship between the Pelicans – who finished 42-40 a year ago and lost their play-in game to Oklahoma City – and Squadron should be more reciprocal during the G League team’s third season in the Magic City.
“There’s Dereon Seabron, who was a tremendous member of the Squadron last year and is with us as a two-way player,” Griffin explained. “We don’t need him to be able to play minutes immediately with us, and so he’ll be able to continue his progression there, which excites us. Liam’s got the potential to be a meaningful NBA center on both sides of the floor. So, getting to leave a player of that caliber there is good for us and will be significant for the development of the Squadron. Whereas before we couldn’t use it like that, we’re at a critical juncture where we’ll benefit from it more.”
Saint says the roles of the two-way players in Birmingham will be well-defined this time out.
“The two-ways that we’ll have in Birmingham on any assignments will all be at different positions,” he said. “So, they’ll all get a lot of time, and that’s the whole point of this. We want to win, and for the players here to be a conduit of winning down here so they can be a conduit of winning with the Pelicans.
“But it’s really about developing the young guys so they can eventually play big games and make contributions for New Orleans down the line – this year or the year after.”
The 2023-24 Birmingham coaching staff includes newcomers Joe Barrer, Jonathan Mitchell and Jalen Cannady, and Adam Barnes takes over the role of general manager of basketball operations.
“Joe was the former head coach of the Lakeland (now Osceola) Magic, and he beat us three times last year,” Saint said. “It’s a huge addition to get a former head coach who sees the game in a unique way and is a super high character person.
“Jodie Meeks is back in his second year and has 10-plus years as an NBA player, and we just added Jonathan Mitchell, who was on the (2007) Florida national championship team. The thing that’s really neat about those three assistants is Jonathan won a title in college as a player, Jodie won an NBA championship as a player with the Toronto Raptors, and Joe won a G league title with the Lakeland Magic as an assistant.”
The Squadron is shifting to the Eastern Conference for 2023-24 and will face six new opponents for the first time in franchise history – the Cleveland Charge, Fort Wayne Mad Ants, Motor City Cruise, Long Island Nets, Westchester Knicks and Windy City Bulls.
Birmingham opens the season at home against the Austin Spurs on November 10 as part of the G League’s Showcase Cup. The Squadron finished 11-21 in the 2022-23 regular season and 6-12 in Cup play.
Before a new G League campaign, though, local fans will get to see Pelicans stars of the future and present (such as Zion Williamson, CJ McCollum and Brandon Ingram) when New Orleans plays the Houston Rockets at Legacy Arena on October 12 in an NBA exhibition game.
Last year’s preseason clash between the Pelicans and Atlanta Hawks was a sellout, and tickets for next month’s matchup are already on sale.
“We’ve got some local guys with ties there who really look forward to coming back,” Griffin said. “Obviously, Herb Jones and Kira (former Alabama Crimson Tide standouts) will be a big part of what we’re doing, and I would expect you’d see both of them in this game fairly liberally.”
Tickets can be purchased through the Squadron website birmingham.gleague.nba.com or by calling 205-719-0850.