New Orleans Pelicans problems: What player tracking data tells us about the defense.
All season long the New Orleans Pelicans defense has been an issue.
Despite having three decidedly above average defensive players on the roster in Anthony Davis, Omer Asik and Jrue Holiday, the Pelicans currently rank a disappointing 24th in the league in defensive efficiency according to ESPN.com.
There have been multiple issues for New Orleans that have caused the struggles this season and most of them start on the perimeter. Despite the presence of Asik and Davis in the paint the Pelicans are giving up an astounding 46.9 points in the paint per game according to teamrankings.com, thanks to a plethora of opponent drives.
The other problem though is the staggering amount of uncontested shots (defined by NBA.com as shots without a defender in 3.5 feet) that the best player and shooter on the opponents roster are getting against New Orleans. Obviously teams are going to work to get their best shooter and player open looks, (Ryan Anderson consistently gets somewhere between 7 and 10 uncontested shots a game), but part of having a good defense is limiting those looks and so far this season the Pelicans haven’t done that, particularly with perimeter players.
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So how bad is it? Luckily the wonderful player tracking data at NBA.com allows us to see.
I went through each game log for games up to Monday night’s against Washington and recorded the uncontested shot attempts and makes for whichever three players got the most uncontested attempts in the game. That led to a total of 707 uncontested shots attempted. Through 34 games that means opponents are generating 20.8 uncontested shots per game from just three players. On those 707 shots opponents are shooting 45.5 percent from the field, a good number but one that could somehow be higher.
It could be higher because the Pelicans have a bad habit of leaving their opponents best players and best shooters uncontested for an awful lot of shots per game. Below is a list of players that have finished in the top three of their team’s uncontested shots against the Pelicans and what they shot in those situations.
James Harden: 4/13 (over two games)
Stephen Curry: 11/19 (over two games)
Klay Thompson: 5/15 (over two games)
Danny Green: 6/18 (over three games)
Damian Lillard: 7/15 (over two games)
Russell Westbrook: 5/17 (over two games)
Wes Matthews: 7/16 (over two games)
Kevin Love: 7/14 (over two games)
LeBron James: 11/15 (over two games)
Dirk Nowitzki: 9/17 (over two games)
Tony Parker: 8/11 (in one game)
Manu Ginobili: 6/7 (only finished in the top three in one game)
Jimmy Butler 4/8 (in one game)
LaMarcus Aldridge: 8/15 (over two games)
Kyrie Irving : 10/19 (over two games)
Bradley Beal: 5/12 (over two games)
The biggest problem for the Pelicans is the reasoning for all the open looks isn’t just one thing.
Some, like this Damian Lillard made three from the game on November 17th comes because Ryan Anderson sat too far back on a pick-and-roll and Jrue Holiday got wiped out by a good screen from Robin Lopez.
Some happen because defenders fall asleep on plays like this Danny Green three that becomes uncontested because Tyreke Evans turns his head and loses sight of Green for a moment.
Green eventually cuts baseline and by the time Reke gets sight of him again it is too late to avoid being crunched by this Tim Duncan screen. The play results in a miss but Green was wide open on the shot.
There are other reasons guys are getting wide open. A few looks came off of offensive rebounds, a time when it is easiest to get uncontested looks. Others came in transition where again it is easy to get those shots.
Continuity and communication should also help and with the roster finally healthy for the first time in a while defensive breakdowns should occur less, leaving less uncontested looks. It is something to watch closely going forward though.
Open shots are going to happen because offense are so good these days, but when they do have the Pelicans forced them to be taken by players like Boris Diaw from 16 feet instead of Danny Green from the corner? If they can the Pelicans defense can make a jump up the defensive efficiency rankings fairly quickly.