Pelicans: Rebounds, Zion Williamson weren’t enough to overcome defense
By Tim Burke
New Orleans Pelicans: Offensive rebounds were key
The sexy stats come first as they are the easiest to explain and what most fans care about.
First up let’s check out some of the main box score stats and see how New Orleans stacks up. The data in this chart comes from basketball-reference. This chart contains points, offensive rebounds, assists, and turnovers and shows the Pelicans average per game, where that ranked in the league, and the total quantity of that particular stat.
| Pts | O Reb | Ast | Turn | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Per Game | 114.6 | 11.7 | 526.0 | 14.6 |
| Rank | 9 | 1 | 10 | 22 |
| Total | 8251 | 845 | 1872 | 1052 |
Not too shabby, the Pelicans finished the year top-ten in points, offensive rebounding, and assists.
With how the offense looked at times this season and some of the concerns among the fans, you’d be forgiven for thinking New Orleans was awful offensively. Even with the bad injury luck of the season’s second half, the Pels put together a fairly robust offense. Also doesn’t seem like the “lack of spacing” was a huge issue.
Finishing top of the league in offensive rebounding was a big driver of the Pels’ success as this allowed the team to get many second-chance opportunities. Part of me thinks this data is a little misleading when you consider how often Zion grabs his own misses and how it feels like he’ll have clusters of offensive rebounds in one minute.
The assist ranking took a tumble from last season’s lofty number three spot but the Pels averaged less than one fewer assist per game when compared to last season (26.8 in 2019-20). The ball movement did stagnate at times and the three-point shooting wasn’t very good as a whole but this is something to build on as the Pels continue to evolve on the offensive end. Also having the transition game of New Orleans helps improve these numbers.