New Orleans Pelicans: 2 Schematic innovations for Stan Van Gundy

The trend of off-ball movement on offense picked up during the 2019-2020 NBA season, and Stan Van Gundy might bring it to the New Orleans Pelicans.

Off-Ball Movement

The first element that I see Stan Van Gundy bringing to the New Orleans Pelicans is off-ball movement on offense. That means players who don’t have the ball in their hands are consistently in motion working off of secondary screens to always be open.

Why do I think we’ll see some of this on the New Orleans Pelicans? Let’s break it down.

In one of our recent posts, we did a deep dive into the offensive scheme Stan Van Gundy has used for most of his career. To summarize that scheme, it’s a pick-and-roll heavy scheme where four players play on the perimeter and one player plays inside. It also includes some dribble-handoff concepts and an emphasis on inside-outside play.

Now you might be thinking that sounds like a standard modern offense, and you’re right, Van Gundy’s offense in many ways was the blueprint for modern basketball. Unfortunately, the game’s evolved more and the last time Van Gundy coached in Detriot, his offense got a little too predictable.

That’s where off ball-movement comes into play. A staple of modern basketball that’s been made popular by Golden State Warriors, moving off-ball is the key to keeping an offense unpredictable. I think there are many ways Van Gundy can do this that’s he’s seen around the league this past season.

One way might be the Spanish pick-and-roll sets that the Toronto Raptors use that involve using two screens instead of one. Another might be the usage of flare screens by wings of the primary pick-and-roll action, a concept the Boston Celtics like to run. Finally, an interesting option with the New Orleans Pelicans roster would be rotating the 4-out 1-in moving the player inside to the outside while another player moves in.