Each week, Pelican Debrief veteran Charles LaRocca (@CLaRoccaJr) will choose one player to highlight as New Orleans Pelicans Player of the Week. We’d love to hear your feedback, in the comments or on his Twitter timeline.
This week, we focus on a surprising rotation mainstay who has kept the Pelicans in quite a few games throughout the early part of the season: Langston Galloway.
The New Orleans Pelicans continued their up and down ways this week. It has been impossible to get a read on how good the Pelicans actually are throughout the early season.
Clearly, their recent four-game winning streak shows that the team has an ability to string together wins. But last night they lost to the NBA-worst Dallas Mavericks, finishing off the week a disappointing 2-2. Consistency is an issue that has plagued the Pelicans all season.
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They have shown flashes of great play numerous times, only to be follow it with disappointment. A player that is at the forefront of that inconsistency this season is backup guard Langston Galloway. He started off the season ice cold, but the microwave scorer has provided excellent shooting off the bench as of late.
Langston Galloway started off the season shooting very poorly. In fact, Galloway missed his first nine three-point attempts of the year. His “shooters gonna shoot” mentality is paying dividends now. Anyone who has watched Galloway throughout his career and this season knows that he’s far from bashful when it comes to putting up shots.
Galloway is tied with Buddy Hield for the most three-point attempts on the Pelicans with 75. The difference though is that Galloway has made 12 more total threes and is up to a blistering 40 percent from behind the arc. Galloway leads the team with 30 made three-pointers, and if he continues his pace, no one will be close to his total.
During the Pelicans’ six-game winning streak, Galloway was 11-22 from beyond the arc, with an incredible six of those makes coming in one game versus the Charlotte Hornets. In the Pelicans’ last two losses against Portland and Dallas, Langston Galloway is only a combined 1-3 from behind the arc. It should be a priority for the Pelicans to get Galloway some more looks from long distance, as he is currently the best shooter on the roster.
Galloway has displayed some very positive trends. Earlier in the offseason, I wrote about how Galloway could become a steal for the Pelicans; if his hot shooting is for real, then he most certainly will be.
IS IT FOR REAL?
First and foremost, Galloway deserves credit for knowing his role offensively. At times it can be frustrating to watch him throw up long jump-shots early in the shot clock. However, Galloway is owning his role as gunner for the Pelicans. 50 percent of Langston Galloway’s attempts this season have been from three-point range. That is by far a career high for him. In fact, Galloway is on pace to average career highs across the board if his three-point prowess holds up.
Langston is shooting a scorching 47 percent on catch-and-shoot threes this year. Just to get an idea of how good that number is at face value, Kevin Durant shoots 43 percent on catch-and-shoot opportunities on the same number of attempts as Galloway. Having a reliable catch-and-shoot option opens up so much for an offense. New Orleans does not have many players that command respect from behind the arc.
Now those numbers will likely go down, as players experience shooting slumps throughout the long NBA season. But as we are seeing right now, he can get hot quickly. I expect that to be a trend throughout the year: Hot and cold stretches from Galloway. A three-point percentage nearing 40 percent is reachable for him.
WHAT THE SHOOTING BRINGS
Galloway’s ability to space the floor opens up so much for the offense. The Pelicans have a number of players who like to attack the basket: Frazier, Holiday, Moore and Terrance Jones all are players who look to get to the rim. Having a viable option like Galloway on the perimeter gives them an outlet once the defensive help comes their way. Here is an example:
A simple drive to the basket, but once Jones sees Mike Conley come over to help, he skips it to Galloway for an open three. An underrated aspect of Galloway’s shooting prowess is his quick release. It allows him to get a clean look before defenders can get a good close-out.
Above is an example of Galloway coming off a screen for an open corner three. He is also the Pelicans’ best shooter coming off screens. Galloway has been the only Pelican capable of finishing this type of action early on in the year.
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Langston Galloway has been far and away the best three point shooter for the Pelicans this season. Consistency is the key though. New Orleans is searching for it desperately and they hope to have found it with the shooting of Langston Galloway.