The perception exists that Alonzo Gee provided nothing for the New Orleans Pelicans’ offense. That might not be the case.
Alonzo Gee‘s addition to the New Orleans Pelicans was not the most exciting move before the 2015-2016 season began. His athletic build and veteran experience were seen as positives, yet his lack of any true offensive game raised some red flags. Due to this perceived lack of ability, fans believed Gee was not going to be an important part of the offense this year, and some of the numbers would tend to lean that way.
According to the official NBA stats page, of every NBA player who participated in at least 15 games this season, Alonzo Gee had the fourth lowest usage rate. Only 9.2 percent of the New Orleans Pelicans’ offensive possessions involved Alonzo Gee. That’s the same usage rate as 36 year old Mike Miller of the Denver Nuggets. However, just because the numbers say the New Orleans Pelicans didn’t use Gee on offense in a quantitative sense, the quality of his offense was quite a big deal. Specifically, he provided the team valuable contributions in transition and in the clutch.
One of the big keys for coach Alvin Gentry‘s offense units in the past has been transition points. The team was originally going to use Jrue Holiday and Anthony Davis‘ ability to run the floor off the break to their advantage. However, the Pelicans got a heck of a lot more Alonzo Gee in their transition game than originally anticipated.
Gee finished the season with a transition frequency percentage of 31.1 percent, the third highest frequency rate in transition possessions among all qualified NBA players. His athleticism and speed put him in a majority of New Orleans’ fast break opportunities, making him a much bigger factor in that offensive department. That importance to the Pelicans was amplified by his effectiveness. Compared to the rest of the players with at least 27 percent frequency in transition possessions, Gee’s was the only player with an effective field goal percentage over 64 percent, with his resting at 67.5 percent.
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His and-one frequency percentage in transition opportunities is also the highest on that list. Alonzo Gee and Houston Rockets forward Corey Brewer are the only two players in the top-10 in terms of frequency with at least 4 percent of their transition possessions ending in and-one opportunities. That being said, it did backfire on the Pelicans at times when Gee found himself in transition. Alonzo had the second highest turnover ratio among the top portion of transition players, turning the ball over 13.3 percent of the time. That turnover percentage is over twice as high as the second highest transition turnover frequency player in the league.
The other major category Alonzo Gee had a massive impact on was in the clutch. Again, the numbers show just how beneficial and detrimental Gee can be for the Pelicans offense. In the final five minutes of the game, Alonzo Gee finished as the eighth highest player in effective field goal percentage. However, he also finished with the second highest turnover ratio. Alonzo Gee may not have had a massive impact on the offensive end per say, but he did have an important effect.
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The New Orleans Pelicans did not see Alonzo Gee carrying much of the offensive load at the beginning of the year and used him as sparingly as they could. Still, there were two areas in which he made a major impact on the effectiveness of the Pelicans scoring. While the expectations for the offensive output of Alonzo Gee will be diminished even more next season than last season, the notion that he had no importance to the New Orleans Pelicans this past year on the offensive end is not true.