New Orleans Pelicans Rank: Tyreke Evans roundtable

Apr 10, 2015; New Orleans, LA, USA; New Orleans Pelicans guard Tyreke Evans (1) dribbles the ball past Phoenix Suns guard

(2) during the second quarter at the Smoothie King Center. Mandatory Credit: Derick E. Hingle-USA TODAY Sports

What was more frustrating to watch: Reke in transition or Reke in the clutch?

Austin: Tyreke in crunch time was very frustrating at times. There were plenty of times where he would look straight at Anthony Davis and not pass him the ball in the post. If you have Anthony Davis on your team, I don’t care what the circumstance late in the game is. You need to pass him the ball. That and defenses tighten up late in games, so the driving lanes Tyreke normally has during the course of a game won’t be there in the last few minutes or so. That makes the shots he chooses to take instead of passing to AD even worse.

Nathan: I think Reke in crunch time. Ideally, Anthony Davis should be taking the vast majority of clutch shots, and we saw Reke pull up far too many bad shots when he should have deferred. I can live with the bonehead plays in transition, because I can understand the thought process of being hyper aggressive and going right at the defender (that doesn’t make it right, by any stretch of the imagination). I can’t imagine that Tyreke Evans believes himself to be the top dog on the Pelicans squad, so I really don’t understand his hesitation to give the ball to the clear best player on the court with the game on the line.

Rick: Tyreke in crunch time was painful. But nothing was worse than seeing a 3-on-1 or a 4-on-1 fastbreak lead by Evans and seeing in his mind that the only thing he is thinking is “Time for me to score this puppy.” No matter how many people are open on the play, Tyreke will attempt to score the ball at all costs on the fastbreak. Seeing what could be an electric play that could spark a home crowd turn into a wild miss or a silly turnover is so painful, I need pain medications after watching it.

Brendon: Worse for the team was his crunch time play, but more miserable to witness was definitely his fastbreak play. There are few things more painful to watch on a basketball court than a guy putting his head down and sprinting down the court with no logical plan in mind, and it often seemed last year like Reke was doing just that. No thanks.

Matt: Crunch time for sure. I understand that Reke had some really great crunch time moments last year like the winner against the Raptors, but watching him not get Anthony Davis the ball was so, so frustrating. We all want to see AD work in those spots and it didn’t happen enough.

Next: Jrue and Reke Fit Question