Last year was a massive success for the young and building New Orleans Pelicans. They found their way into the playoffs for the first time with Anthony Davis and company, surprising many by beating out the Oklahoma City Thunder for the eighth seed. However, with a new season upcoming and expectations rising, some may wonder just how far the Pelicans could rise going into next season. The best case scenario may be similar to what the Atlanta Hawks did in the Eastern Conference this past regular season.
If you looked around at the predictions for the Eastern Conference before last season began, the few names you would have seen as the top seed in the conference were the Cleveland Cavaliers, Chicago Bulls and perhaps in the most uncommon cases the Toronto Raptors or Washington Wizards. The Atlanta Hawks were not a name that came up in that conversation. And yet the Hawks finished last year with a 60-22 record to finish atop the Eastern Conference and the second best regular season record in the entire NBA last season behind the Golden State Warriors.
It was tough to see the Hawks finishing first in the East. Heck, some even predicted Atlanta wouldn’t even make the playoffs under second-year coach Mike Budenholzer. The team has no true superstar and yet four of their starting five made the NBA All Star Game. The team had no go-to option on offense and yet finished 10th in the NBA in points per game. The team had no defensive anchor and yet gave up the fifth fewest points per game in the league. Under a newer coach, they surpassed all expectations. And in an odd way, the New Orleans Pelicans new situation is not that far off from what Atlanta experienced last year.
Sure, having a superstar talent like Anthony Davis is a lot different than anything the Hawks had last season. Along with that, the styles of coaching are different on both teams, with Budenholzer focusing more on ball movement and team defense while Alvin Gentry seems to have his mind set on improving the pace of the Pelicans to be a run-and-gun style team going forward. Along with that, New Orleans has a lot more injuries to start this season than Atlanta had to deal with early last year. Even with all the worries, improvement has already been seen early in the preseason.
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The New Orleans Pelicans finished just under 100 points per game last year, finishing 16th in the league, focusing more on former coach Monty Williams style of patient basketball. However in the first three games the Pelicans have played, New Orleans has shot at least 80 shots in all three games, including 103 shots in their win against the Indiana Pacers to start the preseason. The Pelicans have also scored at least 110 points in two of their three games, winning both of those battles. A New Orleans team that failed to score many transition points last year already has at least 18 transition points in all three of their preseason games this year. One thing is clear under Gentry…the pace is going to pick up a LOT.
So why could this mean the kind of improvements for the Pelicans as the East’s reigning top seed? Well just like Coach Bud of the Hawks, Alvin Gentry seems to be very focused on getting the absolute best out of his roster. The team already has a few good defensive players on the roster, so he is focused on fixing the offensive side of the equation in an effort to maximize the potential of the roster as a whole. With guys who could take advantage of being in an up-tempo offense like Tyreke Evans, Norris Cole, Eric Gordon and Anthony Davis, the hope for Gentry is to open up the avenue and let the roster run, taking advantage of their speed and quickness up and down the floor.
It’s not far off from what the Atlanta Hawks utilized last year in their ability to transform their offense into one that used their bigs ability to move the ball in the same manner as guards to their advantage. The Hawks made their offense lethal by getting every one of their players in positions they were comfortable in on every possession with good off-ball screening and passes from guys like Al Horford and Paul Millsap out of post position into open jump shots outside for their marksman like DeMarre Carroll and Kyle Korver. Add in the Jeff Teague’s ability to slash the lane and collapse the defense and you have an offensive first starting-five that seemed impossible to stop.
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When they get 100% healthy, the New Orleans Pelicans could provide just as lethal an offensive unit parallel the Hawks and the other elites of the NBA going forward. With the same passing ability from their bigs as Atlanta from guys like Anthony Davis and Ryan Anderson, New Orleans can pose the same kind of struggles for opposing defenses in getting their shooters open. And the Pelicans have a lot of shooters on the team, headlined by marksman Eric Gordon, Quincy Pondexter and Luke Babbitt. New Orleans also has the same kind of slashing point who can collapse the defense…two of them at that, with Jrue Holiday and Tyreke Evans.
One of the biggest questions with the New Orleans Pelicans all along has been unlocking the offensive potential of the team. That’s where Alvin Gentry comes in. As an assistant on an NBA championship team, like Coach Bud with the Spurs, Gentry helped the Warriors unlock their potential on the offensive side of the ball with better setups for their sharpshooters on the floor while keeping it spaced enough where the inside presence of their bigs was still a viable threat. It helped propel the Warriors from sixth seed in the West the year prior to NBA champions.
Improvement on the offensive end is the hope for the New Orleans Pelicans with the acquisition of Alvin Gentry. The same kind of hope that was realized by the Atlanta Hawks just a year ago as their second-year head coach earned Coach of the Year honors. And while it may be more realistic to think the leap could be over a longer period of time, Alvin Gentry has plenty of coaching experience in the NBA with his tenure as coach of the Phoenix Suns.
The Pelicans face a fierce battle in the tightly contested Western Conference and will have to play well just to match what they did last year. However, just like the Atlanta Hawks, there are a lot of positive changes to suggest New Orleans could very well take another leap forward this season. Between the new offensive scheme of Alvin Gentry and the improved fortitude of an already strong core of the team, things continue to look up. It’s unlikely their efforts this year will result in a leap the size of what Atlanta did last year, however if they understand how Atlanta changed their fate for the better by successfully adapting their coaches’ principals to the fullest extend, the possibilities for this young, electric team could be endless going into the season.
Next: We Talked Hawks with Jeff Siegel
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