The New Orleans Pelicans and The Utah Jazz: 1 Goal, 2 Paths

NBA championship teams are not built overnight. A championship caliber team, particularly a small market team, must be built through shrewd moves and with an ocean liner’s load of patience. The New Orleans Pelicans and the Utah Jazz are both small market franchises trying to build a contender, and the two clubs are on similar timelines (although, the Pelicans have about a season head start). However, the timeline and goal are where the similarities end. From scheme and coaching to personnel and development, the New Orleans Pelicans and the Utah Jazz have almost nothing in common.

The schemes of the two teams are about as alike as the cities they represent. The Pelicans are built to put the ball in the basket, and now Dell Demps finally has the coach with the vision to play how he has envisioned his team playing. It is fully anticipated the New Orleans Pelicans will finish near the top of the league in both points and pace.

Multiple players on the roster have unique offensive skill sets that allow for mismatches and multitudes of scoring opportunities. Anthony Davis may be the best pick and roll big in the league and Tyreke Evans takes over games with his ball handling and in-air acrobatics; guys like Jrue Holiday, Ryan Anderson, Alexis Ajinca and Eric Gordon aren’t exactly slouches on offense, either. The Pelicans will be looking to run and score at an elite clip this season.

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The Utah Jazz could not be more different. The entire focus of the Jazz squad is to crush the opposition with their smothering defense. Last season, they ranked dead last in pace and 26th in points per game, but first in points allowed per game. The defense, anchored by the Stifle Tower Rudy Gobert and Derrick Favors, plays a physical and imposing game allowing them to force their will on their opponent. The two men implementing these diametrically opposed schemes couldn’t be more different, either.

Alvin Gentry has been there and done that. The Pelicans will be the fifth NBA team he has had the opportunity to lead. His overall record has been fairly pedestrian, but few people question the lifetimer’s ability and talent, which is why he has been in such demand as an assistant.

Quin Snyder is right in the middle of his first opportunity to lead an NBA franchise. After a troubled career at Missouri and bouncing around as an assistant and D-League coach, Quin Snyder was handed the reins to a young and talented Utah Jazz team, and he has been allowed to mold the team to play his brand of basketball. Snyder is a branch of the Popovich coaching tree, but last season the Utah Jazz looked like their own team, not the Spurs-lite.

Roster construction, though, is definitely the biggest difference between the two franchises. The Pelicans are clearly built around Anthony Davis. Everyone else is viewed through the lens of how they fit with The Brow. Davis is a once in a generation talent that elevates every single player on the court with him, and the Pelicans have hitched their wagon to that horse for obvious reasons. The Utah Jazz have not had the pleasure of drafting a top 10 player. Derrick Favors, Gordon Hayward and Rudy Gobert are great players, but their ceiling is definitely not top 10. However, all three of those players would immediately be the second best player on the Pelicans’ squad.

Instead of building around a superstar (albeit out of necessity of not drafting one), the Jazz have focused on building a mountain of talent through the draft. Of the 12 players who played at least 25 games last season for the Jazz, eight players were either drafted by the Utah Jazz or acquired on draft night including all of their starters with the exception of Derrick Favors. The result? The Jazz have acquired an astonishing amount of young talent with potential to improve. Hayward and Favors should already be placed in the top 50 players in the league, and Gobert isn’t far behind. Take into account the development of Dante Exum and Trey Burks, and the rebuild seems to have been a success.

On the flip side, the only three Pelicans players that played at least 25 games and were drafted by the Pelicans were Anthony Davis, Austin Rivers (traded) and Quincy Pondexter (counting him is a bit silly, though, since he came back to the team through a trade). Despite being a small market team, the Pelicans have not followed the Spurs blueprint of building talent in-house, and it instead looks like Dell Demps is managing Pat Riley‘s Miami Heat team at times. Since the drafting of Anthony Davis, Dell Demps has consistently moved the Pelicans’ draft picks in trades for more established players that he felt would compliment Davis’ game along with making shrewd moves in free agency. A few questionable decisions, like the Holiday trade, have made fans question the method, but the sign-and-trade for Evans and acquiring all of the value talent such as Pondexter, Dante Cunningham, Ajinca and Norris Cole has to be viewed as a success.

The talent on each team lends itself to both coach’s style of game. For the Pelicans, Anthony Davis excels at stretching the floor with his mid-range jump shooting and attacking the basket, Tyreke Evans is almost dominant in the pick-and-roll, Ryan Anderson and Eric Gordon are able to drill the opportunities created on kick outs, and Jrue Holiday is the cool head that keeps it all running smoothly. The Jazz have Derrick Favors constantly expanding his post game and playing suffocating defense, Rudy Gobert holding opponents to the lowest shooting percentage at the rim in the entire league, and Gordon Hayward to create shots and lead the young team.

Despite the myriad of differences, the New Orleans Pelicans and Utah Jazz are on a similar timeline. The Jazz are projected by many to make the playoffs this season, and the Pelicans were able to claw their way to a playoff berth last season. Both teams have the same goal, win an NBA championship. The way both teams have gone about it, though, is completely different. From the scheme to the coach and personnel, there are few similarities between the two franchises. They have one thing in common, though; both teams want to win, and they both will try to elevate themselves to the next level.

Next: The Way the Pelicans Are Building is Unlike Any NBA Finalist in 15 Years

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