3 adjustments Alvin Gentry needs to make after All-Star break

Stop the big runs

The New Orleans Pelicans have a bad habit of going on three to four minute stretches where they lose focus, get sloppy with the ball and allow the other team to go on a big run. NBA basketball is a game of runs and the Pelicans are a young team, so it is not surprising that they are prone to these types of lapses, but part of it is on Gentry. Coach Gentry has the knack of not calling “timely” timeouts, such as the aforementioned 19-5 run by the Thunder that happened in the span of a few minutes of uninterrupted play.

Veteran teams like the Thunder can absorb these types of runs, as they have a general in Chris Paul. The Pelicans are a young team being led by 19-year-old Zion and 22-year-old Lonzo Ball and shouldn’t be given as long a leash. Gentry has to adjust the ways he’s using players at the end of quarters and use his timeouts in order to stop these big runs that have been killing the Pelicans over the last few games.

Gentry deserves a lot of credit for the way the Pelicans have turned things around. He needs to continue to make adjustments on the fly as his team finally returns to full strength after the All-Star break. Gentry has the Pelicans in the thick of things in the Western Conference and it should be an exciting finish.