We take a deep dive into Stan Van Gundy’s offense and what it might look like for the New Orleans Pelicans.
The New Orleans Pelicans finally got their head coach in Stan Van Gundy and now it is time to get to work.
Van Gundy was undoubtedly brought in to fix the Pelicans’ woeful defense and to help clean up their problems with turnovers.
The Pelicans were 4th in scoring overall last season, so the offense was not necessarily the problem, though their turnovers often led to easy buckets on the other end, thus affecting the defense.
Van Gundy should help to clean up the turnovers, but what about his offense? Can the Pelicans be even better on that end?
Before we get into some of the plays that Van Gundy likes to run and how they might suit the Pelicans, let’s first take a look at Van Gundy’s offensive philosophy.
New Orleans Pelicans: Stan Van Gundy’s offensive philosophy.
Van Gundy has been consistent with his approach to offense as a coach. He has a fairly straight forward philosophy that he carried with him from Orlando to Miami to Detroit and isn’t going to change in New Orleans.
Here is what Van Gundy believes about offense:
- Reducing turnovers is key. Not only do turnovers take away offensive opportunities but they lead to easy buckets.
- Forget offensive rebounding. Van Gundy’s teams in Detroit did well in this category thanks to Andre Drummond but Van Gundy believes strongly in selling out on offensive boards to get back on defense and limit transition buckets.
- He likes to run. Van Gundy’s teams have always pushed the pace, which suits this team well.
- The big man is key in the offense. Most of Van Gundy’s offenses worked from the inside-out.
- Finally, he believes in being unselfish, moving the ball and making really quick decisions that lead to quality shots.
Van Gundy is known for his one-in, four-out offense in Orlando, but he has added some wrinkles and will continue to evolve in New Orleans.
Let’s take a look at how his offensive philosophy translates into plays and how it might work for the Pelicans.
New Orleans Pelicans: Stan Van Gundy’s offensive playbook.
The Pick and Roll
Like all teams in the NBA, Van Gundy likes to run the pick-and-roll. In his first years in Detroit, this was pretty much all they ran, as they had limited talent on that end.
Even so, the Pistons were able to form a successful pairing with Drummond and Reggie Jackson, which is impressive considering neither of them have a jump shot.
It was most effective when Drummond dove hard to the rim on the roll and Jackson followed, either pulling up for a floater or lobbing it to Drumond.
The Pelicans have a lot of candidates to run the pick-and-roll and they should be able to use Zion Williamson in a very similar fashion to how Van Gundy used Drummond.
It should be even more effective because Zion is much more of a threat to score than Drummond.
Another reason the Detroit PnR was effective was that Jackson was good at hitting runners, floaters and finishing at the rim. Unfortunately, these are areas where Lonzo Ball is not very good. Lonzo will need to improve his ability to finish at the rim if he wants to be in a successful pick-and-roll combo with Zion.
Luckily the Pelicans have other ball handlers. They can run pick-and-roll with any combination of Brandon Ingram, Jrue Holiday, J.J. Redick and Zion, so Van Gundy will have a ton of weapons to work with, far more than he ever had in Detroit.
Eventually, teams figured out the Detroit PnR, largely because neither of the players running it were that good. It should be even more effective in New Orleans, where Van Gundy will have better players and way more options.
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.
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.