Year One of Joe Dumars' era in New Orleans will go a long way in determining Pelicans' future

The words that once adorned the walls of the New Orleans Pelicans practice facility are a thing of the past.

Words like “Mindfulness," “Joy” and “Compassion” that decorated the gym under the David Griffin regime have been replaced by these two simple words: “One Goal.”

Next to the words “One Goal” is a giant picture of the Larry O’Brien trophy.

No New Orleans team — not the Jazz in the 70s, the Hornets in the early 2000s, nor the Pelicans as they have been called since 2013 — has ever come close to lifting an NBA trophy.

But Joe Dumars, who replaced Griffin as the Pelicans’ executive vice president of basketball operations in April, hopes to change that. His first season on the job will answer some key questions for the franchise.

The main one, of course, is this one: Are the Pelicans