Pelica Debrief
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New Orleans Pelicans Player Grades: A Sacrifice to the NBA Scheduling Gods

By Rory Callais

Oct 29, 2016; San Antonio, TX, USA; San Antonio Spurs shooting guard Jonathon Simmons (17) blocks a shot attempt by New Orleans Pelicans point guard Tim Frazier (2) during the second half at AT&T Center. Mandatory Credit: Soobum Im-USA TODAY Sports
Oct 29, 2016; San Antonio, TX, USA; San Antonio Spurs shooting guard Jonathon Simmons (17) blocks a shot attempt by New Orleans Pelicans point guard Tim Frazier (2) during the second half at AT&T Center. Mandatory Credit: Soobum Im-USA TODAY Sports /
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In San Antonio for the second night of a particularly brutal back-to-back, the New Orleans Pelicans fall to 0-3 to start the season.

It went about as well as everyone expected.

When the 2016-17 NBA schedule was released, many New Orleans Pelicans fans groaned at seeing games two and three. Those two games saw the Golden State Warriors in the Smoothie King Center one night and the San Antonio Spurs at the AT&T Center the next. It is a brutal stretch for any team that seemed especially cruel considering the Pelicans won 30 games the previous year. No one expected this to go well for New Orleans, and that is exactly what ended up happening.

The first half saw a few bright spots. The play of Solomon Hill and E’Twaun Moore seemed to improve. There were spurts of good defense and good offensive spacing (although the Pelicans have yet to find their shooting). However, Spurs guard Patty Mills hit a three pointer at the buzzer to close out the first half, and that set the tone for the second. The Spurs quickly and easily began to pull away in the third quarter, with the game well out of reach going into the fourth. By the halfway point of the fourth, the only thing Pelicans fans had to watch was rookies Buddy Hield and Chieck Diallo getting NBA reps.

The Pelicans will get two days’ rest before catching a break in the form of the Milwaukee Bucks at home on November 1st. In the meantime, here are the Pelicans player grades for a game fans would like to forget sooner rather than later.

98. 29. 79. 69. Final

New Orleans Pelicans. TIM FRAZIER. C. Frazier posted five points and seven assists in 25 minutes of action. The back-to-back and Frazier not being NBA starter-level talent caught up to him tonight. Patty Mills abused Frazier on both ends of the floor all night, scoring at will and preventing Frazier from ever getting the offense going, causing Frazier to often shoot a hair too early on offensive possessions.. PG

B. After the first couple of games, the common knock on the Pelicans was that the role players had to step up. E’Twaun Moore got the message. Scoring 18 points on an efficient 8-13 shooting line, Moore made smart plays all night and never stopped hustling, even when the game was clearly slipping away.. SG. New Orleans Pelicans. E’TWAUN MOORE

C. I really want to like Solomon Hill, and despite the five points on 2-7 shooting, Hill makes key defensive contributions. Hill provided some key disruptions to the Spur’s offense that let to a Davis block in the first half and a Moore fastbreak layup in the second. Hill even knocked down a clutch three-pointed early in the second half to attempt to stop the bleeding. However, Hill was abused by Kawhi Leonard all night and missed numerous wide open shots.. SF/PF. New Orleans Pelicans. SOLOMON HILL

B. Anthony Davis simply fell back to earth tonight. After posting unbelievable stat lines for the first time games, exhaustion finally caught up with Davis. Davis logged 18 points on 6-15 shooting to go with five rebounds, an adequate (if inefficient) line for him. But Davis was clearly tired on both ends of the floor, settling for jumpers that rarely went in and showing defensive lapses on the other end of the floor. Davis played 40 minutes the night before against Golden State, so this was clearly a matter of physical exhaustion more than effort.. PF/C. New Orleans Pelicans. ANTHONY DAVIS

D. Omer Asik scored zero points and posted seven boards in 15 minutes of action, but seemed to allow Mills, Leonard, and LaMarcus Aldridge to have their way in the paint. Another clear casualty of the back-to-back for a player who is on the lower side of the energy spectrum in the first place.. C. New Orleans Pelicans. OMER ASIK

Jones posted four points and four boards in 14 minutes. He seemed to disappear for most of the game, although he was a part of a second unit of Langston Galloway, Buddy Hield, Lance Stephenson, and Alexis Ajinca that showed surprisingly good defense in the second quarter before the wheels came off the bus.. PF/C. New Orleans Pelicans. TERRENCE JONES. C-

New Orleans Pelicans. DANTE CUNNINGHAM. C+. Dante Cunningham again proved himself to be an adequate bench player, knocking down open shots and hustling on defense. Although six of his nine points came in garbage time, Cunningham remains a solid rotation player.. SF/PF

D+. Langston Galloway led the second unit to some good defensive plays in the second quarter. That is where the positive contributions end. Galloway relied far too heavily on hero shots, trying to force momentum by lobbing three pointers with plenty of time still on the shot clock. Galloway tried this shot four times. He made zero.. PG/SG. New Orleans Pelicans. LANGSTON GALLOWAY

ALEXIS AJINCA. D-. Alexis Ajinca narrowly avoids an “F” due to being part of a second unit that showed flashes of defensive competence in the second quarter. However, he is simply not playing at an NBA level right now, nor has he for quite some time. He had four points and six rebounds, none of which were fun or meaningful.. PF/C. New Orleans Pelicans

D+. It is difficult to come down too hard on a rookie, but Hield’s inexperience at the NBA level showed tonight. Poor shot selection and defensive lapses dogged him all night. Going from the Warriors to the Spurs in 24 hours is brutal for any player, but Hield still needs to find his NBA shot.. SG. New Orleans Pelicans. BUDDY HIELD

C-. Another great effort from Lance Stephenson, but he quickly ran out of gas as the game progressed coming off his high-octane effort against Golden State the previous night. Stephenson is playing with a lot of welcome fire and passion, although I worry that Stephenson’s emotions can get the better of him and lead him to unnecessary fouls.. SG/SF. New Orleans Pelicans. LANCE STEPHENSON

I. Cheick Diallo saw his first NBA garbage time minutes tonight, posting one rebound and nothing else in six minutes. I don’t have the heart to give the young rookie a bad grade coming in for the first time to get reps in a lost game. Diallo shot 0-2 and didn’t do much otherwise, so he can only get better from here.. PF/C. New Orleans Pelicans. CHEICK DIALLO

Next: Is Panic Justified for the New Orleans Pelicans?

Other Notes: 

  • Turnovers. The game was close out the gate, but a series of key turnovers let the Spurs get ahead late in the first quarter, and they never looked back. While New Orleans and San Antonio ended with 10 turnovers each (and the Pelicans grabbing 19 points off turnovers to the Spurs’ eight), these early turnovers set the tone for the game early.
  • The Pelicans’ three-point woes continued, this time going 4-22 from behind the arc. Given the Gentry offense and the career shooting records of the entire team, the abysmal shooting seems unsustainable. Still, New Orleans wont’ win too many games shooting like this.
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