Bleacher Report Ranks Pelicans As Having Fourth Best “Big-3” In The League

Coming into the season it was a well known fact that New Orleans consisted of a talented dynamic-duo of Anthony Davis and DeMarcus Cousins. With the re-signing of veteran guard Jrue Holiday to a $126 million max deal, the plan was for the Pelicans to morph their dynamic-duo into a triumphant-trio or, as the youngsters call it, a “Big Three”. Although the year got off to a slow start, 26 games into the season NOLA finds themselves holding the eight seed in the West with a record of 18-18. Due to the three aforementioned players magnificent team contributions to date, in the eyes of ‘Bleacher Report’, they are the fourth best “Big Three” in the entire NBA.

Today (January 2nd, 2018) ‘Bleacherreport.com‘ came out with a list ranking the top-10 best “big-three’s” in the NBA today. Rankings, according to Adam Fromal were determined as followed;

"We looked at all 334 players who have logged at least 250 minutes during the 2017 portion of the Association’s calendar, then pulled their scores in three different overarching metrics: NBA Math’s total points added (TPA), ESPN.com’s real plus/minus wins (RPM Wins) and player efficiency rating (PER). The first two are different looks at volume/efficiency combinations, while the latter focuses on per-possession effectiveness and favors offensive production—something the world typically thinks of as necessary in a Big Three. Volume and time on the court matter more here than they might in other evaluations."

With this grading criteria, the usual suspects were indeed found. I’m sure one could guess the top-three spots were taken up by Cavaliers, Warriors and Rockets players. However, what was surprising was where New Orleans fell on said list.

Yes, the Pelicans trio of Davis, Cousins and Holiday have played very well as of late. No one can deny this. But, even still, I was sure they resided somewhere in the six to ten range. However, as the article shows, I was wrong! Beating out the likes of Oklahoma City, Milwaukee and Minnesota New Orleans finds themselves rostering the fourth best “big-three” in the NBA. Fromal’s reasoning behind this was very straight forward.

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Anthony Davis and DeMarcus Cousins combine for an astounding average of “52.0 points, 22.7 rebounds, 7.6 assists, 2.6 steals and 3.6 blocks while shooting 51.5 percent from the field, 35.7 percent from three-point territory and 77.5 percent from the free-throw line.” Right there, it would indicate New Orleans holds two elite players. However, this is a “big-three” list.

Enter Jrue Holiday.

This season, Holiday has been asked to do something he’s never really done in his eight years of experience; play shooting guard. According to the article Holiday has played around 68% of his minutes at the two-guard. With this, he has been asked to play more of an “off-ball” type of game for the Pelicans. Though he got off to a slow start to the season trying to get acclimated, Holiday has since been on a tear. In the month of December alone Holiday averaged an impressive 21.6 PPG, 4.5 APG, 4.1 RPG and 1.3 SPG.

Holiday, however, was not the only one of the three to find success throughout the first month of winter. Throughout December, all three players combine for averages of 75.7 PPG, 11.8 APG, 25.5 RPG, 3.5 SPG and 5.1 BPG. Fromal also mentions the contributions made by other members of the Pelicans as reasons to why NOLA’s big three is ranked so high. In regards to why Holiday has played so well recently, Fromal throws some credit in Rajon Rondo’s direction.

"“he’s adjusted nicely, especially when working alongside Rajon Rondo in recent weeks”-Adam Fromal in regards to Jrue Holiday’s recent surge"

Next: Should The Pelicans Try And Orchestrate A Trade For Stanley Johnson?

So what do you think? Do you agree with Adam Fromal’s ranking? Check out the article to read more for yourself and see who else is listed.