he Pelicans are one of the worst teams in basketball

I don't normally pay much attention to NBA until a lot later in the season but I was under the impression that this was the case for New Orleans. Is it a really bad sign for the Sixers to be losing like this to what is considered a "terrible" team? Also, what was the name of that Duke player the Pelicans put so much into and he just got fat and lazy and never became a force?