New Orleans Pelicans: Will 3-point spacing be a problem in 2021?

Analyzing whether or not the concerns about the New Orleans Pelicans’ spacing are legit or overblown

The NBA season is now just a little over three weeks away, and training camps are opening on December 4th. That means for us, it’s time to get into some questions about the upcoming season for the New Orleans Pelicans.

To open up this series of questions, I’m starting with the one I’ve been asking myself all offseason, do the New Orleans Pelicans have enough spacing in their offense to be a playoff team? After all, in the modern NBA, the 3 point shot is king, and good spacing opens up more driving lanes for talented players.

This is fascinating to me because we had the same question last season, and it turns out it didn’t matter much. The Pelicans finished 2020 making the 5th most 3s in the league per game with 14. They were also 7th in the NBA in 3 point shooting percentage, hitting a solid 37 percent as a team.

Heading into 2021, the organization is rolling out a pretty similar roster. The only difference is that there’s actually some potential upgrades on this year’s team.

Let’s look at Eric Bledsoe, taking over for Jrue Holiday. Even though neither player is a knockdown shooter, and Holiday has the better shooting percentage for his career over Bledsoe (35 percent compared to 33 percent), I believe that Bledsoe can be an upgrade. I say this because, over the past 3 seasons, Holiday’s shot has fallen apart as he’s barely shot over 32 percent during that time, while in the same span, Bledsoe has hit nearly 35 percent of his deep shots.

Outside of the acquisition of Bledsoe, I think this year’s 13th pick, Kira Lewis Jr. should add some more shooting to this year’s Pelicans unit too. When we profiled Lewis, we noted that he’s a shotmaker and that’s true from anywhere on the court, but especially from 3 point range. During his two year career at Alabama, Lewis hit 36 percent of his shots from deep.

Beyond Kira Lewis Jr, this conversation gets a lot murkier. The team’s other additions of Sindarius Thornwell, Wenyen Gabriel Jr., and Will Magnay are unproven NBA players while Willy Hernangomez and Naji Marshall are not known for their shooting prowess.

That leads to some of the concern fans have about the Pelicans’ spacing heading into next season. The organization is hoping that Lonzo Ball and Brandon Ingram maintain the hot shooting they displayed from deep last season even though they were streaky shooters for the majority of their young careers prior. A critic would even say that Lonzo Ball already showed in the NBA bubble that he can’t maintain his shooting consistently.

I know, this leads to many more fans questioning if the Pelicans have enough spacing to run the Stan Van Gundy offense, which relies on having 4 players who can stretch the floor on the court at the same time, and the debate about whether or not a Zion Williamson-Steven Adams frontcourt works in the modern NBA.

I’d like to alleviate some of those concerns right now though. I think the Pelicans will do just fine from a shooting standpoint next season because they have plenty of consistent shooters on their roster, and Stan Van Gundy has already indicated that he’ll get creative with line-ups to maximize the spacing on the floor. 

That suggests fans just need to relax and see what the New Orleans Pelicans decide to roll out next season. In the meantime, I think I’d be more concerned about whether or not the team’s putrid defense will improve enough this season to actually make them a serious playoff contender. That’s a story for tomorrow though!