What’s wrong with the New Orleans Pelicans?

At surface level the New Orleans Pelicans appear to have all the ingredients to be a successful team. As it stands now they are outside of the playoff race looking in.

After Monday night’s defeat to the Los Angeles Clippers, the New Orleans Pelicans once again find themselves below the .500 mark and are struggling to find answers about the recent demise of the team. The Pelicans road woes are well documented, but something else seems to be happening with this team.

In years past we would lament about the lack of talent on the team and say that Anthony Davis is in a one man circus. That may not actually be the case this season. Aside from Davis’ brilliance, the Pelicans have gotten production across the board. This is especially the case when talking about the brilliant play of Julius Randle.

Randle seems to be in definite contention for sixth man of the year as he has shown a pop off the bench that the Pelicans haven’t had in years. Couple that with Jrue Holiday who is having a career year so far this season. Through 25 games, Holiday is averaging career highs in points (20), assists, (9), rebounds, (4.5), and effective field goal percentage (.513).

Couple that with him being a menace on the defensive end and Holiday is your truest, purest two-way player. E’Twaun Moore has had big night’s as he posted back to back 30 point nights last month. He too is averaging a career best 14.7 points per game. The Pelicans as a team are second in the NBA in scoring, only trailing the Milwaukee Bucks. The Pelicans average 118.1 points a game.

The Bucks seem like a comparable team to the Pelicans. They are led by a superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo, they have a nice two-way player in Khris Middleton, and themselves have contributions off the bench. The similarities do not extend record wise as the Bucks are 15-7 and second in the Eastern Conference.

The key difference can be seen on the other side of the ball as the Pelicans rank 25th in defensive efficiency. Milwaukee is ranked 6th. So as we continue to see the NBA with this offensive explosion, we realize the teams who are playing the best defense are winning games.

How can the New Orleans Pelicans who had two starters who finished on the All-NBA defensive first team last season be so porous of defense? I’m sure Alvin Gentry may be wondering the same thing. Until the Pelicans are able to consistently get stops on defense, it won’t matter how many points the Pelicans score on a nightly basis. Defense does still win championships.

Tell us what you think? Do you think defense alone is the reason for the Pelicans struggles? Could it be something else? Sound off in the comment section below.