New Orleans Pelicans: 8 most important storylines to follow this season
By Tim Burke
New Orleans Pelicans: Things to watch this season, team pace, 3-point shooting
Team Pace Stats
Related to the previous point, with a guard securing a rebound they can push the ball up the floor much faster if there’s one less pass to make and three fewer seconds waiting for that guard to shed his defender. New Orleans was one of the fastest teams last season, with 103.7 possessions per 48 minutes, tied with Houston for second in the league.
New coach Stan Van Gundy has said he liked how the Pelicans played last year under Alvin Gentry. Specifically, he mentioned the lack of ball stoppers and the selflessness of the team in general. Van Gundy isn’t going to try and shackle his players by slowing them to a crawl, though it will be a change for SVG. In his career, Van Gundy hasn’t had a team place in the top ten in pace; although he didn’t take over a team that finished top three either.
Expect a slightly slower team this season, the biggest reason for this is to cut down on the turnovers committed each game. Those unforced errors kill a team’s momentum in a game and give extra possessions to the opponent.
Team Three-Point Frequency & Lonzo’s Percentage
Another point SVG hit during an interview was a desire for the team to shoot fewer three-pointers each game. Now he’s not saying the Pelicans will start playing ’80s basketball and just attacking the rim with everyone inside the three-point arc. Rather he believed a large chunk of the long-range attempts came during the first few months when Zion was hurt.
The one player we’re all looking at when it comes to the three-ball in Lonzo Ball. Was last season a fluke? Can he maintain this new level? What if the best is yet to come? Lonzo has worked hard to improve his shooting mechanics over the years, spending extra time in the gym with assistant coach Fred Vinson certainly helped.
I’m of the belief that Lonzo will actually improve on last season’s performance. Do I expect another five percentage point increase that would have him shooting like JJ Redick? No. But if Lonzo can get to just under 40% he will become a floor stretching weapon for SVG.