Pelica Debrief
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Two New Orleans Pelicans Starters On SI.com Top 100 Snub List

By Matt Cianfrone

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One thing for New Orleans Pelicans fans to remember over the coming days is that landing in the top 100 players in the NBA in any rankings is going to be a tough task. With at least 360 players on NBA rosters to start the season, and likely closer to 380 thanks to the size of rosters, being a top 100 player means being really, really good.

That was why it was such a big deal when three members of the Pelicans, Tyreke Evans, Eric Gordon and Ryan Anderson, landed in the top 100 of the Sports Illustrated rankings. With such smart guys as Rob Mahoney and Ben Golliver doing the rankings it was nice to see the Pelicans being perceived as having a fair amount of top end talent, especially because everyone knows that Anthony Davis will end up in the top three. 

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That said it also was easy to see after those rankings that Davis would be the only other member of the Pelicans that was still to be ranked as Evans and Holiday are clearly the second and third best players on the team in some order when healthy. What the real question became then was how close were the next few Pelicans to the list and who were they?

Luckily, Golliver and Mahoney answered that question when they listed their snubs from the list, a group that included both Eric Gordon and Omer Asik.

For Asik, Mahoney explained that the drop in his defense was the problem that kept him off the top 100 as:

"Asik offers defense, elite rebounding (he finished third in total rebound rate), and little else. Any kind of concession in those strengths makes his negative offensive game that much harder to bear, thus limiting how many minutes he can realistically play and curbing his overall utility."

The reasoning makes sense as everyone saw Asik struggle mightily against the Golden State Warriors to the point where he became borderline unplayable for multiple reasons including the fact that the Warriors didn’t even really guard him on offense. Asik is clearly still a valuable player but couldn’t land in the top 100 of a talented league with that in mind.

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    • The biggest surprise seemed to be Gordon, who some people could argue had a better season than Anderson last year with incredible shooting accuracy and some nifty work off the dribble at times when the Pelicans were injured. Mahoney handled Gordon’s capsule as well and again the problem came in his fairly shallow skill-set.

    "Gordon was a terrific shooter for the Pelicans last season whenever he could get his feet set and decidedly less useful when called into greater creative responsibility. The pick-and-rolls he initiates don’t tend to go anywhere in particular, making his handle better used for attacking close-outs than initiating offense. Ultimately, he gets by. Gordon just doesn’t have enough to add defensively (where he’s competitive but undersized and not as agile as many of his positional peers) or on the game’s margins (where he rated as one of the worst rebounders in the league) to make up for his somewhat limited functionality"

    While it is nice to see the Pelicans be recognized, the problem comes from the fact that the team lands only four players in the top 100 and just one of those lands in the top 50. If New Orleans was going to get by with having superior depth they needed more top 100 players to do so. Otherwise they need a great second star next to Anthony Davis, someone who lands in the top 20 or so if they truly want to compete for a title.

    That may come some day but for now the list just highlights the Pelicans roster flaws.

    Next: Three Pelicans Were in the Top 100

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