With the vast array of changes the New Orleans Pelicans made to their roster this offseason, did it improve their defense or make it a bigger question?
The New Orleans Pelicans went through quite a bit of change to their roster in the past few months.
Not only was there the departure of Eric Gordon and Ryan Anderson, but the Pelicans acquired four new faces on cheaper deals to add to the nucleus of Anthony Davis and Jrue Holiday.
The offensive side of things seem easy under Head Coach Alvin Gentry. He’s an offense-first coach that’s known for teams that can score 100 points a game. Still, that’s not why the Pelicans struggled so much last season. That was due to their defense.
The New Orleans Pelicans gave up over 106 points per game last year, ranking 26th in the league defensively. The Pelicans also gave up the fourth best shooting percentage at 46.8% per game. That’s not going to cut it at this level of competition. While New Orleans was able to eclipse 100 per game scoring, they couldn’t hold back other teams.
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What seems like a major need to address went a little under the radar. While the signings this offseason were looked at defensively, it did not seem apparent that any of them were defensive “playmakers”. So the question comes up:
Did the New Orleans Pelicans improve defensively as a team, or does it just add more questions?
The trickiness is the fact of how different each signing’s situation was prior to being inked to the Bayou.
E’Twaun Moore did well in Chicago guarding two’s with lethal shooting in his division, such as Monta Ellis and J.R. Smith. However, it’s tough to tell if it will translate to the Pelicans due to the drastic difference of styles from New Orleans and Chicago.
The Bulls played one of the slowest paces in the NBA last year, while the Pelicans played one of the fastest. Moore is capable of strong defensive games, but will it become more tiring in the run-and-gun style that differs from his stops in Chicago and Orlando? It’s not a guarantee his defense will be what it was if he gets tired too easily.
Then there’s Terrence Jones. While Jones’ played in a similar system in Houston, he did not have the greatest success with staying on the floor due to injuries. His defense became a question mark at the time, as his capabilities were not 100% there when he attempted to return to the floor.
It’s easy to see the potential in a player’s defensive peak, yet it’s hard to count on it getting there with setbacks marked all over his report card these past few seasons. However, it’s not completely out of the question that he could return to the form that almost had him starting next to Dwight Howard on a sleeper-contender in the Western Conference just a few years ago.
It’s hard to know just how much the Pelicans will play Langston Galloway due to the new jam at shooting guard. He has a lot of defensive capabilities, yet like Moore, he played in a slower system on the New York Knicks. The Phil Jackson system fit Galloway well, but will it translate?
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It’s more hopeful with Galloway due to their youth. Both are still in the younger parts of their careers and, unlike Jones, have not been saddled with injuries. Especially in Galloway’s case, the legs should be there to hold his own on the defense.
Finally comes Solomon Hill. Again, a team that played a slower game in Indiana, yet Hill has an upper edge on the others. He has the recent tests of having to play lockdown defense in a high-paced series against athletic foes and proved well.
Hill played the small forward and power forward spots in the Pacers first round series against the Toronto Raptors and shut his matchups down fairly well. It nearly helped win them the series. He also had a similar defensive assignment to what the New Orleans Pelicans will ask of him: A LOT of switching.
Alvin Gentry’s defense seems centered around every man being able to switch on and off his assingment. Hill did plenty of that, having to go from Patrick Patterson, to DeMarre Carroll, to DeMar DeRozan and so on. He succeeded, giving the fans hope throughout the series. It might be the same hope in the Bayou, as the Pels will ask him to switch from two-through-five, depending on the pick-and-roll situations.
So did the Pelicans actually improve on defense? The answer looks to be yes. Even if all the players above struggled in their first year in New Orleans. It will probably be due to the focus and the departure of two Pelicans that could not figure it out on defense.
Eric Gordon and Ryan Anderson were main contributors to the offenseend, yet they never could figure it out defending the basket. Whether it was slow feet, bad positioning or just not enough athleticism. They got beat night in and night out. That reason alone makes this team better defensively. The potential of what it could mean long term, depending on how the newcomers play, is a question that’s tough to answer.
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The exciting thing is improvement seems to be on the way. This team will more than likely become a little bit better defensively. It could be a massive, moderate, or just a minor increase. Still, it will almost certainly be a step forward. Give that credit to the front office, who decided this offseason would focus on addressing their biggest problem. How much it might pay off for the New Orleans Pelicans will have to wait to be seen.