New Orleans Pelicans: How Stan Van Gundy’s offense fits the team

New Orleans Pelicans: A deep dive into Stan Van Gundy’s offense

Dribble Hand Offs

When teams finally cracked the Detroit pick-and-roll, Van Gundy got more creative with how he used Drummond.

Drummond started handling the ball more outside of the post, often starting the offense from the top of the key.

Drummond was never very good at posting up, so this made sense, as his jump hook was an inefficient shot that often stopped the ball.

Van Gundy ran many variations of this play, usually starting at the top of the key. The big uses his body to screen the defender and can either hand off, take it to the rim or pass to the open shooter.

There are usually down screens and a lot of action off the ball.

This play could be even more effective for the New Orleans Pelicans, as Zion is much more of a threat with the ball.

The Pels can run shooters all over the floor and let Zion use his big body to create space. The Pels also have much better shooters than Detroit ever had, so should be able to effectively open up shots.

If the defenders stay at home with the shooters, then Zion is free to do his thing in the post.