4 NBA Teams Primed for Breakout Seasons

New Orleans Pelicans

A lot of how the New Orleans Pelicans perform this season will be dependent upon two main things: Jrue Holiday's family issue and Anthony Davis' health.

Holiday, New Orleans' projected starter at point guard, is set to miss the start of the regular season in order to take care of his wife, former soccer star Lauren Holiday. Lauren, who gave birth to the couple's first child on September 24th, was diagnosed with a benign brain tumor in late June. The surgery to remove the mass will take place six weeks removed from the child's birth -- which is roughly the beginning of November. A timetable for his return is not known at this time.

As for the other concern, Brow's health is already in question. He's already out 10 to 15 days with a Grade 2 ankle sprain during a preseason game a week ago. Hopefully, this means that Davis is getting his injury problems out of the way early. The Pelicans can't afford for him to miss another 20 games if they hope to take a step forward this season.

If New Orleans can maintain absent their All-Star floor general, the Pelicans could be in for a big season. They have one of the best talents in the NBA in Davis, and they've finally done their best to build around him.

In free agency, they added Lance Stephenson, Solomon Hill, and Terrence Jones -- who bring a combined 13 years of experience and 32.2 career win shares to the Big Easy. In addition to this trio of established players, New Orleans also added Buddy Hield and Cheick Diallo via the draft.

Bringing on athleticism and versatility should help improve their defense not to mention their consistency on offense. After all, last year New Orleans ranked 27th in defensive rating and 19th in effective field goal percentage. Hield, in particular, will add to the Pelicans' mediocre 8.6 three-pointers per game. He averaged four makes on his own in his senior year at Oklahoma.

Last year, the Pelicans were ninth in pace, yet only eighth in turnovers per contest. That's surely at the foundation of their expected improvement, as Vegas set New Orleans' win total at 36.5 wins. As for our algorithm, it's not quite as optimistic. We project New Orleans to finish with just 3.4 more wins than a year ago, coming up short of a playoff berth at just 7.1%.