Lacking cohesion through the first four games of the season, Alvin Gentry needs to find a way to get his New Orleans Pelicans team an early-season win.
The beginning of the 2019-2020 season continues to spiral on the New Orleans Pelicans, as the team is off to an 0-4 start. Without a few key players on the floor, the team is falling short on both ends of the floor, leaving a lot to be desired from preseason expectations.
When the team set forth its “Won’t Bow Down” motto at the beginning of the season, it didn’t envision games like the one they played tonight in their fold.
Gentry: The most disturbing thing to me is we were never in the game. You can look at the score, but we were never in it. That’s disturbing, especially at home... If we say won’t bow down, we can’t do what we just did.
— Andrew Lopez (@_Andrew_Lopez) October 29, 2019
Tonight was supposed to be a winnable home game. Instead, it took about 15 minutes for it to get embarrassing. Playing sloppy basketball in a 123-134 loss to the Golden State Warriors at home on Monday night, head coach Alvin Gentry has a lot of work left to do with his new-look team.
Notably, the team’s robust defense from the past few seasons seems to be an art of the past, even with the team’s addition of defensive guru Jeff Bzdelik in the offseason. Through four games, the team is allowing an average of 128.3 points, with teams shooting 45.9% from the floor.
Far too often the team is allowing opposing defenders to get easy looks around the rim, most notably last night against the Warriors. The Pelicans allowed Golden State to get 21 points off of 15 turnovers, many of which came in the first half.
Also getting worked on the glass all night, the Pelicans were outrebounded 41-61 by the Warriors. The team has lost on the glass in every game, as the New Orleans Pelicans are being outrebounded by a margin of 184-to-212 so far this season.
Over and over again, the Pelicans are settling for poor looks early in the shot clock, many of which are coming on contested three-point looks. Overall, shot selection has been questionable to start the year for the New Orleans Pelicans, with the notable exception of a Brandon Ingram.
Injuries are playing a significant role to start the season for the New Orleans Pelicans. Zion Williamson is out 6-to-8 weeks recovering from a torn meniscus in his right knee. Jrue Holiday and Derrick Favors haven been slowed and were out with injuries against the Warriors.
However, the team needs to play better than it has during its 0-4 start if it wants any hope of making the playoffs. Whether it comes from tightening the rotations or cleaning their sets up on both ends of the floor, Alvin Gentry is the man who needs to make the tough decisions to try and make his team improve their early skid.
The New Orleans Pelicans need cohesion amongst a new coaching staff, front office, and group of players, with Gentry crucial to that formula.
While the team isn’t getting result it wants early, all indications from Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations David Griffin show that the team is going to be patient. After all, the organization greatly overhauled almost all of its basketball personnel over the last six months.
It’s supposed to yield more promising results than an 0-4 start, but the team has made wide-ranging operations decisions over the past few months to improve its basketball team for the long haul.
Notably, the team hired perhaps the finest basketball sports medicine trainer in the industry away from the Phoenix Suns, contracting Aaron Nelson as the team’s Vice President of Player Care and Performance.
Nelson is known for prolonging the careers of Shaquille O’Neal, Steve Nash, and Grant Hill. Now, he’s got the chance to protect Zion Williamson’s knee in a vulnerable position early in his career.
No matter the personnel behind the scenes, it’s the play callers and designers that have to start turning this team’s fate early in the year.
When they hired Jeff Bzdelik to lead the team’s new-look defense, they were expecting the same results the Houston Rockets had with the ball-stopping czar over the past three years. So far, the Pelicans seem to be wearing matador red and playing olé defense.
Lead offensive assistant Chris Finch was voted the best supporting coach in the NBA by league executives at the start of the season. Arguably, he’s looked the best of any of the Pelicans coaches, as the team was moving the ball fairly well until Monday’s loss to Golden State.
The team also hired first-year NBA assistant Teresa Weatherspoon to help with the organization’s development of young players, which will ideally have great benefits in the long run.
Coaching staffs don’t come together overnight, the New Orleans Pelicans being no different. The team needs to find cohesion in its staff across the board, but that starts with Alvin Gentry’s leadership and guidance more than any other factor.
Until Zion returns sometime this winter, the New Orleans Pelicans are going to keep having to find ways to learn to play without the star rookie on the floor. While Alvin Gentry probably doesn’t want his job to be judged until Williamson returns, it’s the reality he’s facing to start the year.