Omer Asik and Anthony Davis Can Combine to Fill the Andrew Bogut Role

When the New Orleans Pelicans agreed to a deal to make Alvin Gentry their next head coach Pelicans fans rightfully got excited. With Gentry’s offensive mind and Anthony Davis‘s incredible skill, the Pelicans had found a coach that could take them from a top 10 offense to one of the best offenses in the league. That was until a report came out that the Pelicans saw Omer Asik as their version of Andrew Bogut, a center who dominated on defense and facilitated a lot of offense from the high post. After a season of watching Asik be frustrating on offense the idea of Asik running things from the elbow was a terrible thought. But what if Gentry finds a way to incorporate the “Bogut role” using just part of Asik’s game? Because there is a way to do so that could generate fantastic results for the Pelicans.

The first, and most important part, of the Bogut role is the defensive end of the floor and is the part that Asik should be able to handle well enough. After all, a look at most of the numbers from last season show that Asik and Bogut are similar players, though Bogut does remain the better one. Most importantly is the job that both players did defending the rim this season. According to NBA.com’s player tracking data, Asik contested 8.1 field goal attempts at the rim per game this season and allowed opponents to shoot just 51.1 percent. Bogut meanwhile did a bit better, contesting only 7.2 per game but holding opponents to an insane 41.4 percent.

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While many people will point to Bogut’s mobility as the reason for the difference, the fact is that Bogut and Asik moved almost exactly the same way this season. Again per the NBA’s player tracking data, Asik traveled 125.8 miles this season at an average rate of speed of 3.8 miles per hour. Bogut meanwhile traveled just 96.6 miles at a speed of 3.7 miles, with the difference in movement coming because Asik played 399 more minutes than Bogut this season. So while Asik won’t be quite the impactful defender that Bogut is, he should be able to take on the role that Bogut had as a rim protector for the Warriors defense and add some better rebounding to the role after finishing fourth in the league in defensive rebounding rate last season, five spots ahead of Bogut.

What Asik won’t be able to do though is fill the offensive part of Bogut’s role after turning the ball over way too often for a player who basically only catches and dunks and not without the vision that Bogut possesses that allowed him to account for assists on 15.4 percent of the Warriors baskets when he was on the floor this year. In fact Bogut’s career worst assist rate of 9.3 percent would be the highest of Asik’s career, ahead of the current career high of 5.4 percent set this past season. So where would the Pelicans find that role? The answer, like many answers surrounding the Pelicans, comes in the form of Anthony Davis.

The most important part of the Bogut role on offense came in handling the ball around the elbows, something that Davis can shine doing. In just 23.6 minutes, Bogut averaged 3.6 elbow touches per game this season and from there he was able to find his teammates spotting up and off of cuts, which is a large reason why he accumulated so many assists. Anthony Davis meanwhile averaged 7.2 elbow touches per game in 36.1 minutes per game and finished with a career high assist rate of 11.6 percent. What makes Davis even more dangerous in that role is that he possesses both shooting and ballhandling abilities that neither Asik or Bogut have. Play up too close on Davis and he can blow by a defender and finish at the rim. Play too far away and a defense opens itself up to either a pass or an AD jumper that has become automatic. In Davis, Gentry would be able to take the so-called “Bogut role” and add even more wrinkles to it to make a defense worry.

The idea of the”Bogut role” translation also misses an important point. Gentry won’t bring a carbon copy of the Warriors offense to the Pelicans much like he did not bring a carbon copy of his Suns’ offenses to Golden State. Instead he will mix and match portions of both into concepts that will take advantage of the Pelicans unique strengths and downplay their weaknesses much as he has done at each stop along his career.

That said, if he ever does want to have an “Andrew Bogut role” as a main part of the way he runs the Pelicans he does actually have that player if he is just willing to combine two.

Next: AD is ready to work with Alvin Gentry

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