New Orleans Pelicans: Second Term Report Cards

T6. Darius Miller: C+

Surprise! Despite being a very good three-point shooter, Darius Miller is in fact not a 47.9% three-point shooter. This showed in his second term when he shot just 39.2% from three. Still a good percentage point, but nowhere near the mark he came into this term with. In reality, Miller probably lies somewhere in the middle, as a low-to-mid 40s sniper.

Much like in the first term, Miller is not nearly as good as he should be defensively. His DRPM has somehow worsened from his first term to a -1.91 Being that earlier in his career in the NBA, Miller was able to put up a 1.45 DRPM, this mark should definitely be better.

T6. Anthony Davis: C+

Despite getting just a ‘C+,’ Anthony Davis has still been playing like an All-NBAer in the Pels second term. The problem is, that is how it should be. Furthermore, Davis has fallen into some old bad habits of his, which have plagued his overall performance.

For example, in the first term, Davis shot 23.2% of his shots from the mid-range. In the second term, that has moved up to 29.8%. Though this is not very close to his 37.5% of last season, it is negatively affecting his two-point percentage, as it decreased from 60.1% in his first term to 56.3% now.

Furthermore, his defense has been subpar compared to The Brow’s usual standards. In the first term, the Pels defense improved by 11 points per possession with Davis on the floor. Now, that number is just 7.2. Still great for most, but not for Davis.

And despite Davis still showing benefit as a defender, his opponents have been shooting better on him than before. Within six feet of the basket, Davis has a zero percent effect on opponents shots. In the first term, this number was 11.7%.

And much like his interior defense, his perimeter defense has weakened significantly. Offenders have shot 1.3 percent better on AD’s defense outside of 15 feet in the second term, despite Davis worsening offenders field goal percentages by 7.9% in the first term. And though one could assume that Rondo is negatively affecting AD’s perimeter defense in pick and rolls, as Davis must make up for Rondo’s shoddy defense, DeMarcus Cousins’ defense has actually improved outside of 15 feet in the second term by 4.6%.

Lastly, AD’s rebounding percentage has suffered a 2.2 % hit, and though this definitely is not anything to sound the alarms about, it is still a negative aspect of AD’s play in the second term.