New Orleans Pelicans: 3 Burning questions for the team after the preseason

Question #3- Will the team’s defensive improvements hold up for the entire season or were they just a flash in the pan?

Finally, the biggest question of the night, was the Pelicans stellar defense just a product of a weak preseason competition, or a sign of things to come? And is it sustainable?

Let’s break it down this way, while the Pelicans played a team that wasn’t at full strength, they did show good fundamentals and schemes that can carry over against stronger competition.

The whole night, this defense was communicating and making sure that they covered every player on the court. They followed up that communication with an excellent approach, closing out on shooters on the perimeter, and collapsing the paint when needed.

I can definitely see those schemes carrying over for most of the year. Now to answer if the play is sustainable, I’d say it is to a degree. The Pelicans should be able to maintain communication and the fundamentals to Van Gundy’s defense for most of the season, but they might slip during some games because they’re still so young. It’s not enough that young teams in the NBA are great defensive ones.

Secondly, teams can expose the scheme the Pelicans were running if they try to. I think we saw this from the Miami Heat when they ran pick-and-roll. The Miami pick-and-roll shredded the Pelicans defense at times, especially in the first half, and that’s an indication that the team needs to improve their pick-and-roll defense entering the regular season.

Overall, I think this was a good start for the New Orleans Pelicans, and I think these questions indicate some trends to watch early in the season that we don’t have conclusive answers to yet, so let’s revisit these later in the season.