New Orleans Pelicans: Grades for crushing loss vs. Spurs

New Orleans Pelicans vs. Spurs: Grades for the bigs

Steven Adams wasn’t necessarily bad, but he was thoroughly and surprisingly overwhelmed by Jakob Poeltl.

The Austrian center is one of the more underrated bigs in the NBA. He doesn’t have a very flashy or modern game, but he is incredibly effective protecting the rim and making the most out of the few shots he gets. The Spurs definitely deserve credit for the way they have developed him.

Adams was the best center for the New Orleans Pelicans on Saturday night, but that’s not really saying much. He was uncharacteristically sloppy on offense and, more importantly, failed to corral some crucial defensive rebounds in the clutch.

The New Zealand center seemed intent on tapping the Spurs’ misses out, rather than just gathering them as he usually does.

Jaxson Hayes found it tough to deal with the Spurs’ dynamic offense and did not make the defensive impact that he is capable of.

The Texas big also didn’t make himself felt on his return to the Lone Star State. He missed five of his seven field goals, only scoring two easy dunks. However, much like Kira Lewis Jr., I want to see Hayes see an uptick in minutes if the Pelicans don’t make the playoffs.

Hayes only plays 15 minutes per night, a small decrease on his rookie season’s figures. More time on the court will serve his development really well and give him the chance to show the more expansive parts of his game, such as maybe some outside shooting or the ability to put the ball on the floor.

Willy Hernangómez only played five minutes against the Spurs.

I suspect that Stan Van Gundy didn’t trust the Spanish center to effectively guard San Antonio’s moving pieces and explosive guards. In those five minutes, Hernangómez committed a foul and picked up a turnover.

As we have seen before, there will be other games in which Van Gundy will turn to Hernangómez; however, if he isn’t going to be in New Orleans next season, I would rather see his minutes go to Hayes.