View the original article to see embedded media.
If you do not know his name, you will soon because Jose Alvarado made his presence felt with the New Orleans Pelicans this season.
Going undrafted in the 2021 NBA Draft, Alvarado earned his spot in the Pelicans’ roster and played with a chip-on-his-shoulder the entire season.
In the playoffs, he earned a key spot in the team’s rotation off-the-bench and quickly became a fan-favorite due to his tenacity and strength on the defensive-end of the floor, as he guarded future Hall-of-Famer Chris Paul for the vast majority of New Orleans’ playoff series against the 1-seeded Phoenix Suns.
Alvarado played great defensively on Paul in this series, even forcing an 8-second violation on him during one of the playoff games.
After looking back on this playoff series and embracing the Pelicans’ fanbase, Jose Alvarado recently made his future goals in this league very clear, sending out a tweet on Thursday claiming that he will win Defensive Player of the Year one day.
From being undrafted to working his way onto the Pelicans roster as a two-way player to earning a standard NBA contract at the end of this season, Jose Alvarado’s journey has been nothing short but miraculous early on in his career and based on what we saw in the playoffs, Alvarado definitely has a chance to be known as a defensive-stopper in this league.
He may only be 6’0” tall and one of the smaller guards in the league, but Alvarado plays with heart, he plays with intensity and he does not back down to anyone.
Similar to how Alex Caruso went from undrafted to shining on the defensive-end of the floor in this league, Alvarado has a chance to do the same.
The city of New Orleans loves what they have in Jose Alvarado and they let him hear it in the playoffs.
Being a part of the youth movement within the New Orleans Pelicans organization, Alvarado has set high expectations for himself as he gets set to enter the offseason and his second year in the NBA.
More must-reads: