New Orleans Pelicans: The Most Important Numbers to Watch at Disney

The New Orleans Pelicans Need to Get Back on Defense

When the Pelicans have a chance to set their defense, they can lock teams down.

They have two plus-defenders in Ball and Holiday on the perimeter, a rim protector in Derrick Favors and some versatile guys like Josh Hart who can defend multiple positions.

The problem is that they aren’t always getting back.

The Pelicans are 28th in the league in fast break points allowed, giving up 15.9 points per game on layups and dunks.

Part of this is because of the aforementioned turnovers. Turnovers lead to fast breaks, which lead to dunks and easy transition 3-pointers.

But it isn’t just the turnovers. The Pelicans pull down 12.1 offensive rebounds per game since Zion returned, which is good for second in the NBA. The problem is that it isn’t always good for transition defense.

Offensive rebounds can lead to easy putbacks, but if you don’t get them, the defense is exposed on the other end.

The Pelicans have several plus-offensive rebounders in Zion, Lonzo and Favors and they grab a healthy 28.8 percent of their offensive rebound attempts, largely because Zion often gets his own misses.

But the Pelicans need to make sure that the guys who aren’t crashing the boards are getting back on defense.

Some teams, like the Spurs, have abandoned the idea of offensive boards because of this, as the risk of letting up wide open transition buckets is not worth the reward of a potential offensive rebound.

Zion is grabbing most of the offensive boards anyway, so everyone else needs to get back, as the transition points they are letting up are undoing any gains they are making on the offensive glass.

The Pelicans can score and play defense, but they also have a tendency to lose focus, which leads to turnovers and easy fast break points.

If the Pelicans can clean up these two areas they will have a good shot at earning the final playoff spot in the West.