The New Orleans Pelicans have a good ole’ fashioned tragic western hero on their roster, Toney Douglas. The parallels between Douglas and the now iconic protagonist from Red Dead Redemption are not hard to draw.
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Toney Douglas represents a dying breed for the New Orleans Pelicans. The gunslinging combo guard is comfortable creating shots for himself and playing pesky defense, but, just like John Marsten from Red Dead Redemption, he’s about to get left in the past while the Pelicans are dragged into a new era.
Red Dead Redemption, the spaghetti western-esque masterpiece, is a tale of tragedy for the protagonist, and Tony Douglas’s story appears to be on a similar arc. Despite being relatively effective in his time filling in for both Tyreke Evans and Jrue Holiday this season, Douglas will likely find himself pushed out of the rotation (or, even off the team) in this upcoming season.
On his way to his inevitable, unescapable ends, Douglas has shown fans how entertaining an outlaw can be, though. Shooting from the hip with frequency, Toney Douglas was extremely streaky this season in pull-up situations, and his effective field goal percentage clocked in at 42.2 percent on 3.6 attempts per game.
Oh yeah, and Toney Douglas totally has the ability to use “dead-eye,” too. For the uninitiated, “dead-eye” is an ability the protagonist has to slow down time and pick his shots in a gun battle, and Douglas’s shooting percentage from beyond the arc backs up the idea that he possesses the same ability as John Marsten. Finishing the season shooting a cool 39.9 percent from three, Toney Douglas finished as the fourth most efficient long range shooter for the Pelicans despite taking the fourth most attempts.
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Feeling like someone from an era that has since passed, though, it appears that time will pass Toney Douglas by just as it passed John Marsten. The Pelicans are on the verge of turning a page, and the process has already begun with the emergence of Anthony Davis and the hiring of Alvin Gentry.
The future is nigh, and shooting from the hip (unless you are Steph Curry) will become a thing of the past. Efficiency will be stressed and the ball will need to move to make that happen. Despite playing over 20 minutes a game, Toney Douglas averaged just 2.6 assists per game, a mark that is not exactly encouraging if the team wants to install a modern offense that centers around ball movement.
As the Pelicans face numerous roster questions this offseason, it is easy to view Toney Douglas’s run at the end of the season as his last stand. After the All-Star break, the outlaw attempted nearly ten shots per game, a doubling of his mark before the break. His gunslinging was exciting, but it had a sense of finality to it. Fans were witnessing Douglas playing his best basketball in the best possible role for him, and yet, it did not feel like enough.
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If that really was his last stand, if that really was his swan song, Toney Douglas went down just like John Marsten, shooting.