New Orleans Pelicans State of the Union

The first two games of the New Orleans Pelicans can be summed it up by this play during last night’s game:

Wednesday night’s blow out at the hands of the Portland Trail Blazers was the second embarrassing game of the season for this Pelicans squad. Losing two games by an average margin of 17 points per game isn’t exactly what coach Alvin Gentry envisioned, I’m sure. Yes, there are lots of injuries holding this team back but there are plenty of things that go beyond that as well.

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OFFENSE

The Golden State Warriors won a championship due to their ball movement; creating shots for others and passing up a good shot to get a great shot. One part of that is making decisions and reads quickly. The Warriors turn the ball over at times, anticipating things that aren’t there but those are the types of decisions you need to make to be successful. Seeing the floor and being able to react to it fast is what makes teams like the Warriors and the San Antonio Spurs great.

That type of offense is the type of thing that coach Gentry wants this team to do. That’s what he did in Phoenix and what he helped craft in Golden State. Right now, they are doing a really poor job of it. When you catch the ball, you need to make up your mind on whether you are going to shoot, attack, or move the ball. Watch Alonzo Gee catch the ball and hesitate to do anything with it.

He gets the ball without a defender anywhere near him, waits for somebody to guard him, pump fakes, and then makes his move. That takes way to much time and allows the defense to rotate where they want to.

It also doesn’t help when your team’s spacing is atrocious. Players aren’t standing in spots on the court that are optimal for that spacing. In this clip, Davis is standing in the middle of the lane, Eric Gordon is just wandering back and forth, and Cunningham is standing in a spot that allows his defender to help easily. The lane is clogged with all their defenders sagging in help.

The injuries are obviously killing this team, forcing the Pelicans to play guys who probably won’t be a part of the rotation. Alexis Ajinca in particular has been darn near unplayable. He is slow logging up and down the floor and has been pushed around rather easily by opposing bigs. For athletic as he is, Alonzo Gee has seemed completely lost and confused on both ends. Ish Smith is fast, but teams are switching and laying off of him in order to help on Anthony Davis. It’s great and all that Nate Robinson and Kendrick Perkins are still playing in the NBA, but they just absolutely shouldn’t be playing any important minutes for a team with playoff aspirations.

Speaking of Davis, he hasn’t been great either. In fact, he has been pretty bad. His 25 and 10 performance last night was encouraging, but every single shot he takes is so dang tough thanks to the cramped spacing and the other team legitimately not even guarding his teammates. He is often forcing the shots and trying to do to much, something way out of his comfort zone. AD is so good at just letting the game come to him and getting his production that way, but the unfortunate problem with this current team is that it isn’t ever going to come.

You can see a scenario of things getting better when Jrue Holiday isn’t on a minutes limit and other playmakers like Tyreke Evans and Norris Cole are in the game. All three help give a little extra spacing and make quick decisions with the ball that will help keep the offense flowing. In the meantime, coach Gentry needs to come up with more creative ways to slow the game down. With the current personnel, they don’t have the quality of players with the skill set to make a quick read and react offense work.

DEFENSE

The Pelicans were one of the worst defensive teams in the league last season, ranking 22nd in defensive efficiency. In the offseason, coach Gentry added defensive guru Darren Erman to his staff to fix that. So far, the early returns don’t indicate anything much better. Their rotations are just completely off, leaving guys wide open.

Seriously, how does CJ McCollum get THIS open in transition?

Gordon and Gee have both especially been bad. Both have been turning around, spinning in circles like the pace of the game is way to fast for them. I know Al-Farouq Aminu hit a three to open the game, but you have to know that he is a career 28.6 percent from downtown. Make him prove it to you a few times before you treat him like a sniper. Gee stays glued to him in this clip, leaving Ed Davis wide open on a roll to the hoop.

The defensive end might be the most discouraging part about Davis’ performance thus far as well. He is offering darn near no resistance at the rim, getting scored over quite frequently as he rotates over late. For a guy with as great of a reputation on that end as Davis has, he shouldn’t be able to let guys get into his chest loft it over his long arms like this.

One of the things that Davis is supposed to be able to do well is switch out on to guards like Lillard and make life tough for them. This hasn’t happened at all in both games. Davis needs to do a better job of sitting in a stance the whole time. The second he stands up, or gives the guard any sort of angle to the hoop, it is game over.

I trust coach Erman to right the ship. Defensive rotations are the hardest conceptually to understand for NBA players. A lot of that leans on continuity, and it hurts even worse when you have no clue who you’re going to be playing alongside of every night. With the outlook of the roster of this team moving forward, however, these problems may linger as long as the injuries do. If they can’t get some sort of consistent minutes out of guys not named Anthony Davis, then there might not be a situation where things get better on the defensive end.

It isn’t, by any means, time to panic. We are only two games into the season, and anything can happen from this point out. With all of the uncertainty with the roster and health of the team, however, the outlook may not be so bright. If they aren’t able to pay attention to detail better on defense and grasp coach Gentry’s offensive concepts, this team might struggle to get to 40 wins, let alone the 50 that everybody thought this team might be capable of.

Next: The Warriors Defended the Pelicans So Anthony Davis Could Not Beat Them

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