New Orleans Pelicans: Illustrating Stan Van Gundy’s go-to offensive plays
By Nick Alvarez
Taking a look at a key offensive plays we might see the New Orleans Pelicans run under Stan Van Gundy
Would I consider Stan Van Gundy an offensive genius? Not quite, but I will say that the New Orleans Pelicans’ latest head coach knows a thing or two about scheming up an offense. That’s part of the reason why he got the job.
While last year’s Pelicans had a prolific offense under Alvin Gentry, it was a very undisciplined one. The offense last year was so focused on speed and playing with freedom that they often turned the ball over. Under Stan Van Gundy, the goal is for the Pelicans to have a disciplined offense that utilizes defined roles and set plays to attack a defense efficiently.
How exactly does Van Gundy do that? Well, we noted when Van Gundy was hired that his offense is rooted in a 4-in 1-out, pick-and-roll heavy scheme. That means that Van Gundy likes creating an attack where the floor is properly spaced for shooting while pick-and-roll play sets up a variety of scoring options dictated by the defense.
These are the sets that Van Gundy said the Pelicans would run much more of this year, and sometimes it’s difficult to understand what these plays look like and how they work. That’s why we’re going to breakdown Stan Van Gundy’s go-to offensive plays so fans can get a taste of what to expect next season. Let’s check them out!
A staple of Stan Van Gundy’s offense that New Orleans Pelicans fans will see is the common NBA concept “Horns”
The biggest thing I noticed about Stan Van Gundy’s offense is that he loves to run variations of the “Horns” concept for most of his offense. For those of you that don’t know what “Horns” is, it’s a common play that utilizes screens and handoffs as a way to spring open shooters, open driving lanes, and create key matchups against man-to-man defense. A lot of people consider it a variation of the pick-and-roll.
A great breakdown of what “Horns” looks like in the NBA can be seen here in this video from BBall Breakdown:
So know that we know what “Horns” looks likes, let’s take a look at how the variations of that play that Stan Van Gundy uses and how that’ll work with the New Orleans Pelicans personnel.