New Orleans Pelicans: Second Term Report Cards
By Seth Nefsky
9. Jameer Nelson: D
The second term of the season has not been kind to Jameer Nelson. His three-point percentage has been a subpar 32.5%, with most of those threes coming from open attempts. Without Nelson’s three-point shooting, he serves little purpose for the Pelicans, as they already have two superior playmakers receiving big minutes, in Jrue Holiday and Rajon Rondo.
The Pels offense has also been worsened by 10.3 points per 100 possessions in the Pels second term, despite bettering it by 5.9 points per 100 in the first.
With no offensive game to show for in the Pelicans second term, Nelson finds himself practically useless, as his defense is anything but game-changing. Nelson’s minutes per game have declined from 25.6 to 18.5, and if he continues playing like this, he should see himself out of the rotation
8. Rajon Rondo: C
Much like my opinion of him, Rajon Rondo has been extremely inconsistent this year. He has had spurts and streaks that have made him look like the shamrock-clad Rondo of old. But with that, there have also been lackluster performances, which make him unplayable.
But nevertheless, Rondo has been consistently inconsistent, with this amount of fluctuation in his play being a keystone of his game since his stint in Dallas. And on the offensive end, he is performing. The Pels offense has improved by 1.4 points per 100 possessions with Rondo on the court in the team’s second term, and his passing has still been Rondo-esque.
It’s on the defensive end where Rondo loses grades. Rondo’s defense can best be summed up with the words disinterest and jeopardization.
On help, he is disinterested. He stays far from his original assignment but does little to make it challenging for opponents. Therefore, in the second term, he has contested just 3.9 shots per 36 minutes, which is awfully low among guards.
He is jeopardous on drives and picks and roll defense, trying to sneak behind ball handlers for steals, instead of staying in front of them.
His presence on the court in the second term has worsened the Pels defensive rating by 5.8. And though Rondo has not improved his team’s defense since 2009-2010 with the Boston Celtics. At the very least, he has almost never been this bad.
Rondo’s laughable defense is the likely reason why he has been just seventh on the team in fourth-quarter minutes per game in its second term, despite starting all of his available games.