New Orleans Pelicans Synergy Stats: Tyreke Evans

By Matt Cianfrone | Feb 14, 2015

With the release of data from the Synergy Sports catalog to NBA.com/stats this weekend, basketball fans were treated to a bunch more incredible stats to consume. So what do the numbers tell us about the New Orleans Pelicans? We will take a look at each rotation player one by one, starting with Tyreke Evans.

The Good: Evans on cuts.

Tyreke Evans has done a lot of things for the Pelicans this season, working as a lead ball handler, an off ball weapon and as it turns out a devastating cutter.

So far this season Evans has had 36 plays classified as cuts and is scoring an astounding 1.50 points per possession on those plays. That number puts Evans in the 92.4 percentile in the league in cuts.

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Overall Evans has scored on on 72.2 percent of his cuts this season, a number that isn’t far off of Anthony Davis‘ team leading numbers.

The bad: Transition problems.

It isn’t surprising at all for anyone who has watched the Pelicans this season to see that Evans ranks in the top eight in the league in transition plays this season with 233, which makes up 22.5 percent of his plays. Unfortunately Evans has been pretty bad on those plays so far this season, ranking in just the 18.9th percentile at 0.91 points per possession.

The biggest culprit in Evans transition struggles are his turnovers. Reke is turning the ball over on 17.6 percent of his transition opportunities this season. Many of those turnovers are charges as Evans has a tendency to just plow over defenders near the rim and it has caused him to no longer get the benefit of the doubt on close calls.

Evans is going to continue to get chances on the break for the rest of the season so his converting of those opportunities at a better rate could boost the already great Pelicans offense.

The encouraging: Evans in the pick-and-roll.

Tyreke Evans pick-and-roll ball handling game hasn’t been world beating this season but it has been pretty good, an encouraging sign for the Pelicans going forward. Evans checks in at 0.8 points per possession as a pick-and-roll ball handler scoring on 39 percent of those plays.

That number ranks in the 65th percentile in the league so far this season, so Evans still has plenty of room to improve. The exciting part of things for the Pelicans though is Evans is normally the option on the secondary pick-and-roll when the roster is healthy, meaning the team is getting nice production when the ball is swung by Jrue Holiday.

Again the problem with Evans though is turnovers as he has turned the ball over on 18.6 percent of the possession he has finished as a pick-and-roll ball handler. If Evans finds a way to drop that number down his numbers should rise even more, giving the Pelicans two legitimate weapons out of the pick and roll.

In general Evans’ Synergy numbers are as confusing and his play has been this season. Outside of the offensive cuts, nothing Evans has done this year has rated super high compared to the rest of the league. But outside of the transition struggles, nothing he has done on offense ranks terribly. Most of all though it seems to all come back to one thing. If Evans can cut his turnovers down, the Pelicans great offense will become even better.

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