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

New Orleans Pelicans: Looking at Stan Van Gundy’s offense

Working Inside-Out

All of Van Gundy’s teams have had talented big men, which is why he ran a big part of his offense through them.

Van Gundy is credited with being the pioneer of surrounding a big man with shooters, playing a one-in, four-out style that relies on ball movement and quick decisions.

This worked well in Orlando, where he had the personnel to run it, but not as well in Detroit, who always lacked shooters.

The Pelicans should be able to run a similar style with Zion and Brandon Ingram initiating a lot of the offense while being surrounded by shooters.

This doesn’t mean the shooters just stand around and wait for the defense to collapse. Van Gundy’s offense involves a lot of slashing to the hoop and movement off the ball, but it all starts on the inside.

This should suit the Pelicans, as they have a dominant post player who is not a bad passer, they have shooters and they have guys who can slash to the rim.

The biggest difference is that Zion is already much better at getting his own shot and is much more of a threat to score when initiating the offense, which should open things up even more for the shooters.

The Pelicans were often stagnant in the half-court this season, lacked ball movement and cutting off screens.

Van Gundy should be able to install an offense that uses Zion more effectively to create opportunities for others. This doesn’t mean that the point guards won’t be handling the ball (DON’T YELL AT ME LONZO STANS) but that offense can be initiated in a multitude of ways.

Van Gundy’s ability to teach defense and reduce turnovers should help the Pelicans considerably, but he also runs an offense that is suited to their roster.

This will be the most talented team that Van Gundy has ever coached, so I am excited to see what he can do offensively with a team that is already very good on that end.