Why the New Orleans Pelicans need Kenrich Williams back soon

Despite not putting up big numbers, Kenrich Williams has been huge for the Pelicans all season and they need him back as soon as possible.

Early in Friday night’s game against the Oklahoma City Thunder, Kenrich Williams, a starting forward for the New Orleans Pelicans went down with a sprained left ankle. He did not return in that night’s game and also missed Sunday’s game against the Thunder as well.

While Williams is not a player who really stuffs the stat sheet for the Pelicans, if he is to miss substantial time, it would almost certainly hurt New Orleans more than a mere glance at their box scores may initially suggest.

For the first several games of the season, Williams’ minutes were inconsistent as he came off the bench, playing anywhere from 3 to 32 minutes in a given contest. However, with the Pelicans frontcourt decimated by a spate of injuries, Alvin Gentry was sort of forced to call upon Williams as a starter, giving him more stable playing time than he had experienced thus far.

And with Williams as a starter, the Pelicans began to improve. Before he entered the starting lineup, they were just 1-8 and then quickly went 5-5 in their first 10 games with him inserted into the opening five.

Of course, not all of this can be directly attributed to Williams’ presence and expanded minutes. Jrue Holiday finally started playing well and J.J. Redick began to catch fire, but Williams was a catalyst and reliable presence who fit in nicely alongside everyone else, providing stability on a team that seemed perpetually in flux.

The Pelicans have spent all season missing seemingly a ton of players every single night. Until his absence on Sunday, Williams was the only Pelican to have appeared in all of the team’s games so far. New Orleans has been especially weak in the frontcourt so far with Zion Williamson yet to appear and with Jahlil Okafor and Derrick Favors missing about a combined 20 games between the two of them.

In the midst of all these injuries, Williams has been a reassuring and steady presence for the Pelicans, especially with how many different line-ups they have had to utilize so far.

Also, Williams has been a very good defensive presence on a team desperately need in that. All year long, the Pelicans have had little trouble scoring, but have had great difficulty getting stops. When Williams became a starter, New Orleans was 29th in defensive efficiency, but in his first six games as a starter, from November 9 to November 19, the Pelicans were 16th in that same stat per NBA.com.

While the Pelicans are still just 26th in the league defensively and need to see much more improvement on that end than they have, it seems clear that Williams is a key in seeing New Orleans getting more stops and, consequentially, in getting more wins.

Unsurprisingly, in light of their improved defense with him on the floor, he has easily the highest plus/minus of any Pelican. With him on the floor, they are 17.1 points per 100 possessions better than with him off of it according to Basketball-Reference. While this may be shocking to someone who has not watched the Pelicans play much this year, to those who have, it is sure to be quite unsurprising.

Hopefully, Williams’ ankle sprain is a minor thing and he will back on the floor for the Pelicans soon. The Pelicans have consistently been a better team with him in the starting lineup and if they are to continue to improve as they have since their disastrous first nine games, he is sure to be a big part of that process.