We took a deep dive into how Stan Van Gundy will fix the New Orleans Pelicans’ defense.
The New Orleans Pelicans had the 21st ranked defense in the NBA this season, which is part of the reason why Stan Van Gundy is the new coach.
We already took a look at how his offense might fit the team, but how about SVG’s defense?
Van Gundy’s teams have been very good defensively, finishing in the top ten most of the seasons he’s been a coach. In fact, the Detroit Pistons were never outside the top-ten in Van Gundy’s tenure, and this was a team that wasn’t loaded with talent.
That’s why the New Orleans Pelicans should be excited about Van Gundy, as they had the 4th best offense in the league and can probably make the playoffs if they just improve defensively.
But how is Van Gundy going to do it? First, let’s take a look at his defensive philosophy and how it might improve the Pelicans.
New Orleans Pelicans: Stan Van Gundy’s defensive Philosophy
Van Gundy is fairly conservative when it comes to defense and a lot of his philosophy starts on the offensive end. Here are the basics of what Van Gundy believes about defense:
- It starts on offense by limiting turnovers. Getting back on defense to limit transition is one of the foundations of Van Gundy’s defense. Since transition buckets are often the highest percentage shots, his defense revolves around limiting them.
- Don’t give up points in the paint. The Milwaukee Bucks were terrible at defending the 3-point shot this season but had the league’s #1 defense. How? By stopping easy baskets in the paint. 3-Point shots are all the rage but layups are still easier, so force teams to shoot from distance.
- Stay on the ball. Van Gundy likes to pressure the ball and close out on the perimeter. Most importantly, he wants his defenders to do this without fouling. Foul shots are another source of easy points that Van Gundy wants to limit. If you can keep teams from getting easy points in the paint and reduce their free throws, you are in good shape.
- Finally, he preaches defensive rebounding over running out. Defensive rebounds are how you close out possessions, so he wants his teams crashing the boards rather than trying to cherry-pick on the other end.
Let’s take a look at how this defensive philosophy will help improve the New Orleans Pelicans.
New Orleans Pelicans: Stan Van Gundy will improve transition defense
Get back on defense!
The core of Stan Van Gundy’s defensive philosophy is not giving up easy baskets, which means getting back on defense to limit shots in transition.
These are usually dunks or uncontested 3-pointers, which happen to be very high percentage shots. Van Gundy wants most of his team to sell out on the offensive glass so that they can always have bodies on the defensive end.
This happens to be an area where the Pelicans struggled this season. They were 28th in fast-break points allowed, giving up 15.4 per game.
Van Gundy’s Detroit Pistons were in the top-five in transition points allowed every year Van Gundy was there and led the league once. If you look at his 2017-18 team in Detroit, they allowed 9.9 fast break points per game, a five-point difference from the Pelicans.
Those five points are the difference in close games, so if Van Gundy can get this team to buy-in on the idea of getting back on defense, they should be able to win some of the close games they gave away this season under Alvin Gentry.
Van Gundy usually designates one player to go after offensive rebounds (in Detroit it was obviously Andre Drummond) and wants everyone else to get back. The benefit of offensive boards is not worth the risk of giving up an easy dunk or 3-point shot on the other end.
Zion Williamson will still be able to go after his own misses, something he is very good at doing, but the rest of the team needs to get back.
New Orleans Pelicans: Stan Van Gundy’s defense reduces points in the paint
Points in the Paint
Another area where the New Orleans Pelicans were terrible on defense was protecting the paint. Part of this was because they didn’t have much in the way of big men, as Derrick Favors is not a shot-blocker and Jaxson Hayes is still learning how to play.
The Pelicans were 28th in points in the paint allowed in 2019-20, giving up a whopping 52.2 points per game in the paint. That means nearly half the points they are allowing per game are coming from close to the hoop. That has to change.
Van Gundy improved the Pistons in this area, going from 20th in the NBA to top-ten in one season. Of course, if the Pelicans are to improve in this area, it will take more than defensive scheming.
They lack talent at the center and power forward position, need some size, and guys who are committed defensively.
The Pelicans also need a rim protector, as they didn’t have a single big man average at least one block this past season. The Pelicans need to bring in someone who can block and disrupt shots around the rim.
Zion often has the highlight reel swats but he needs to get better at on the ball defense in the post, as he often doesn’t move his feet and commits silly fouls.
If Van Gundy can get the Pelicans to the middle of the pack in points in the paint allowed, they would potentially be shaving another 5-8 points off their opponents’ total.
New Orleans Pelicans: Stan Van Gundy’s defense reduces second-chance points
Close out the Possession!
The final way Stan Van Gundy will immediately improve the Pelicans’ defense is by ensuring they close out possessions with defensive rebounds.
The Pelicans were very good on the offensive glass but were just 18th in defensive rebounding percentage, which led to a lot of second-chance points.
In fact, the Pelicans were 26th in the NBA in second-chance points allowed, giving up 13.6 per game.
Van Gundy took the Pistons from 18th in this category to 2nd in just one season, then finished 1st and 5th in the following.
Van Gundy preaches boxing out on the defensive end and not selling out by trying to leak out early. This is one area where Zion Williamson needs to improve. He often tries to leak out for easy fast-break dunks, especially when he switches on the perimeter.
This leaves the Pelicans undermanned in the paint, which is one of the reasons they let up so many offensive rebounds and second-chance points.
While it was fun to watch Lonzo Ball throw full-court alley-oops to Zion, it wasn’t fun watching the other team constantly getting buckets on easy putbacks.
Van Gundy will teach rebounding on the defensive end and it could potentially save the Pelicans 5-6 points per game.
If the New Orleans Pelicans can reduce the easy buckets by getting back on defense, protecting the paint and grabbing defensive boards, they have a chance to make a huge leap defensively next season.
If they can get into the top-15 on defense, this is going to be a very difficult team to beat.